Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise

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2 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Narrative: Awards for Innovations in Higher Education Context Section 1: Program Partnership Goals. The Long Beach College Promise (LBCP), a partnership between California State University Long Beach (CSULB), Long Beach City College (LBCC) and Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD), was established in 2008 with the general goals of increasing college preparation, college access, and ultimately college success. In 2014, as part of the White House Commitment to College Opportunity, LBCP committed to achieving the following goals by 2025: (1) raise graduation rates by an additional 10% beyond already-attained large increases, (2) graduate 4,400 additional baccalaureate degree holders beyond current completion rates, and (3) increase college participation and access for underrepresented students. The goals established, both in 2008 and refined in 2014, clearly align with the priorities of the Award for Innovation in Higher Education. Policy, Practices, and System Changes. Emphasis on college preparation, access, and success have already born fruit for the partnership, with LBUSD students seeing a 34% gain since 2008 in admission to CSULB, LBCC transfer students admitted to CSULB at a rate 18% higher than applicants from other community colleges, and all local students (freshman and transfer) completing bachelor s degrees at about the same rate than their peers. The partnership s previous work has also culminated in national acknowledgement, with CSULB winning the prestigious inaugural award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) for Excellence and Innovation in Completion and Student Success. In addition, the new commitments made by LBCP will result in a reduced averagetime-to-bachelor s degree for LBUSD students by one-half semester and a reduced averagetime-to-transfer for LBCC students by one-quarter semester by These outcomes have been and will continue to be made possible through the collaborative work of the Long Beach College Promise partners, by which policies, practices and systems continue to change and evolve to streamline pathways for students to degree completion. Achievement Gaps. Like most urban communities, the majority of students enrolled at all three educational institutions are both ethnically and economically diverse, and each wrestles with significant achievement gaps for these students. However, innovations piloted have made tremendous gains in closing the gaps. CSULB s efforts have created gains that have reached all ethnic and gender subgroups; the Latino graduation rate has risen 20%, the African American rate 22%, and the Asian rate 23% in eleven years. Another key example is the Alternative Placement Model, addressing the known barrier that standardized testing plays for many disadvantaged students. This innovative model utilizes past performance to determine future performance and ultimately placement in transfer level courses. This shift has resulted in a 9% and 29% increase for Latino students successfully completing transfer-level math and English, respectively, within their first year. These gains outperformed the achievements of white students for the baseline cohort. In other words, had this solution only been provided to students of color it would have closed the achievement gap between Latino and White students. Innovations like this hold great promise for making meaningful gains in addressing achievement gaps while still providing overall gains in progress towards Bachelors Degree attainment. The framework of college preparation, access, and success create a common foundation for the LBCP partners to ensure that degree completion is at the forefront of every effort. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 2

3 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Content: Section 2 Student Statistical Profile. Long Beach, one of the 50 largest cities in America and called the most diverse by USA Today, serves a vibrant mix of students: Table 1: Student Statistical Profile LBUSD LBCC CSULB Gender Data Female 50.5% 54% 56.6% Male 49.4% 46% 43.4% Ethnicity Data American Indian or Alaska Native <1% 0.3% 1% Asian 10.5% 13.1% 22% Black or African Americans 14.4% 15.4% 4% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander 1.6% 0.9% Included w/ Asian Hispanic or Latino 55.4% 47.8% 36.6% White 13.9% 17.2% 24% Other Race Multiple Race 2.2% 3.8% -- Undeclared 1.8% 1.4% 15% Other Status Data Low-Income 72% 51.5% 48% Disabled 11% 2.9% 4% In/Former Foster Care 3% 0.1% N/A Veterans % 1.5% Evidence-Based Analysis of Factors that Impede Student Progress. Barriers that impact student progress to completion include: (1) unclear pathways, (2) limited targeted support, especially for underrepresented students and (3) lengthy remediation sequences. These barriers are especially problematic for the majority of underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students enrolled at each institution. Unclear Pathways. The Institute for Higher Education FACT: Approximately 1 of Leadership & Policy (Moore & Shulock, 2011) reports that every 5 students enrolls in students who entered a clearly sequenced program of study their first semester at LBCC (pathway) in their first-year of college were 50% more likely with an undeclared major. to complete than those who entered a program in their second year (see also, Jenkins & Cho, 2011). The report goes on to state that the lack of a clear pathway has a particularly pernicious effect on minority students and their progress to completion and that the lack of clearly defined and structured course sequences that form clear pathways to certificate or degree completions is a common challenge across educational segments. (Bailey, Jaggars, & Jenkins, 2011; Scott-Clayton, 2011). It is difficult enough for students to meet the diverse major requirements of university admissions and the community college s central mission of access exacerbates the issue further, as students can enroll in most courses without completing any pre-requisites, and very few programs are allowed to implement an January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 3

4 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise application process prior to students entering the program. The breadth of courses offered within each program can also be very large due to the diverse transfer requirements of universities in California, leaving students with a plethora of course options. This complexity is worsened by time constraints on many students who must commute and/or work and cannot take full loads or access required classes. Many pathways have key gateway courses that function as barriers and supports for success may not be provided including pedagogy modernization with key digital technologies that enhance learning. These non-optimal structures create environments in which many students wander through the course offerings, accumulating large numbers of unnecessary units. This lack of clear pathways also hinders students ability to effectively and easily gauge their progress towards completion or how future courses may impact their progress. Targeted Support. Research has shown that students must learn and understand the rules of the postsecondary environment in order to persist, and that failure to achieve is often due to poor understanding of educational culture rather than poor academic performance (Tinto 1993). This is especially true for underrepresented and first generation college students. The lack of sequenced courses outlined above is only one of the barriers that hinders effective academic guidance at all institutions. Additional barriers to effective support services include historically high student to counselor ratios, the inability to bring high impact services to scale or to the majority due to limited resources, and the lack of communication across institutions. These barriers to effective guidance and support hinder student progress and create barriers for the most vulnerable populations at each campus. Promising practices have been identified but as the minority becomes our majority the ability to scale services has presented another barrier, the impact of which includes students failing to meet financial aid deadlines, or understand how to apply for college or transfer or even be able to access on-campus resources. Remediation Sequences. Research shows that almost half of all students entering higher education assess as requiring remediation in Math, English, or Reading nationwide (Bailey, Jeong, and Cho, 2010; Horn & Nevill, 2006). For example, students at LBCC need to FACT: In Fall 2014, nearly 40% of LBUSD students entering CSULB required remediation. complete, on average more than 5.5 semesters of sequenced remediation to become college-ready in all three disciplines. Additionally, up to two-thirds of students who are placed in developmental or remedial course work fail to complete the required coursework to achieve college-ready status (Bailey, Jeong, & Cho, 2010). Moreover, students of color disproportionately assess as needing remediation. The dangers of overreliance on a highstakes, one-time administration of standardized assessment has been underscored in research by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) that suggests this method has significant flaws and dramatically underestimates student ability to succeed at college-level work (Belfield/Crosta, 2012; Edgescombe, 2011; Scott-Clayton, 2012; Xu, forthcoming). System Changes & Impact. To address these barriers to completion LBCP has integrated the following priorities focused on system change: (1) expanding articulated career pathways, (2) adopting models that reduce time to remediate, (3) implementing Associate Degree for Transfer Degrees (ADTs), and (4) integrating professional development for counselors, faculty and staff across all three institutions. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 4

5 Innovation Section 3 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise 3. Key Policies, Practices, Systems in Place Prior to January 10, While tremendous innovation has occurred at each of the partnership sites, for this section four initiatives will be highlighted which demonstrate major system and policy changes that have led to increased Bachelor s Degree completions for the local region, including significant gains in degree completion for local at-risk and minority students. System Alignment Long Beach College Promise. In 2008, the three educational institutions structured the LBCP to align educational systems and remove barriers for student progression. This included the Long Beach College Promise Scholarship awarded to every high school senior, providing each student the first semester at LBCC tuition-free; since its creation, the Long Beach College Promise Scholarship has been awarded to 4,000 students. CSULB committed to providing guaranteed admission for local students who qualify, leading to gains in LBUSD freshman enrollment from 519 in 2008 to 743 in 2012 despite greater competition for fewer seats at the university as well as gains in LBCC transfer students, with local students persisting at a higher rate than non-local students. In 2012, LBCC rolled out the Promise Pathways, which guaranteed students full-time schedules including required math, reading, and English courses, and enhanced student supports. Through Promise Pathways, the percentage of LBUSD students attending fulltime during their first year at LBCC increased from 50% to over 80%; 36% met the basic transfer intent metrics in the first year as well, up from only 13% in 2011, and over half successfully completed 30 units within the first year, up 10% from prior years. The most significant impact of Promise Pathways was the reduction in performance gaps by ethnicity, with students of color showing the greatest gains towards completion. Reducing Remediation Alternative Placement Model. LBCC has received multiple awards for its leadership in statewide efforts to use student data and predictive analytics to pilot an alternative model for placing students into courses upon entry to the community college. The LBCP partners studied the relationship between LBUSD student s high school performance and both their placement into different levels of English and math and their performance in those courses, leading faculty at LBCC to pilot an alternative placement model based on high school grades and transcript information. The results of the initial pilot were overwhelmingly positive with successful completion of transfer-level math within the first year of college tripling and the completion of transfer-level English nearly quadrupling. Importantly, rates of achievement of these milestones increased for every demographic group with some of the largest relative gains made by Latino and African American students. Just as importantly, these quantum leaps in student completion of transfer-level courses have been achieved while still maintaining the same success rates in the transfer-level courses. This innovation has decreased the number of students placed into long remedial sequences, speeding up time to transfer and ultimately time to a Bachelor s Degree. Strengthening Career Pathways The Linked Learning Model. Understanding the strength of the learning community models and the goal of college and career ready students, LBUSD converted each of their high schools to industry-themed smaller learning communities. The impact of this transformation includes increased graduation rates, increased curriculum alignment with post-secondary partners, increased attainment of January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 5

6 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise college credit for high school students, increased college enrollment, and increased industry engagement through the newly established non-profit, Long Beach Collaborative for Advancing Linked Learning (LB CALL). In 2013 a delegation of more than 30 CA Senators visited LBUSD and LBCC to see first-hand the most promising K-12 education reform initiative in full implementation. As a result, the State invested $500 million in the Linked Learning Model and the LBCP partnership was awarded two CA Pathways Trust grants for an investment of $21 million to strengthen career pathways. Accelerating Time to Completion Highly Valued Degree Initiative & Major-Specific Admissions. In 2008, CSULB established the Highly Valued Degree Initiative (HVDI) with goals to increase college retention and completion rates overall and for all student ethnic, gender, and major subgroups. Inspired by the 2005 Graduation Rates national study led by AASCU (with Education Trust) CSULB embarked on what has become the defining initiative for the entire university. A few key strategies have included: top level institutional commitment to this initiative, retention & completion metrics, systems changes across departments, enhanced student advising, new learning communities, expanded supplemental instruction, new technology systems for advising and completion progress checks utilizing predictive analytics, curriculum streamlining, and the redesign of gateway courses utilizing digital learning technologies. The results of the Highly Valued Degree Initiative have been dramatic. In just over a decade, six-year first time freshman overall graduation rates have risen from below 40% to 65%. Transfer graduation rates have shown similar increases. These gains have reached all ethnic and gender subgroups. For example, the Latino rate has risen 20%, the African American rate 22%, and the Asian rate 23% in eleven years. In 2013, CSULB launched a new admissions approach, emphasizing major-specific course requirements in admissions. As a result, a far larger number of students are arriving fully prepared to succeed, especially transfer students. In Fall 2014, 89% of all new transfers were fully prepared to undertake upper division work. This change will have a strong effect on time to degree, especially for transfer students. This approach makes best use of state resources placing lower division course work in the community colleges at a lower cost. These admissions changes have not been in place long enough to see impacts on graduation rates or time to degree but these outcomes will be apparent in one or two more years. Lessons Learned. In working across institutions, it became apparent that significant state policy changes were needed in order to facilitate student transition between institutions. In 2011, the LBCP partnership was successful in the passing of Senate Bill 650, the College Promise Partnership Act, which gave the partnership increased flexibility in providing concurrent enrollment opportunities for students. The LBCP was also a strong supporter and adopter of the Senate Bill 1440 transfer degrees, with over 13 ADTs in place and 10 moving through the curriculum process. Finally, the partnership learned that its strategies were most successful when framed in scalable models; instead of focusing on smaller student target groups, strategies have been applied universally to all students, such as the Long Beach College Promise Scholarship, participation in Promise Pathways, participation in Linked Learning small learning communities, and participation in the Highly Valued Degree Initiative. LBCP will continue to implement strategies at scale or with built-in scalability in order to have significant impact on completion outcomes. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 6

7 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Innovation Section 4 Key Policies, Practices, Systems Initiated since January 10, The work of LBCP has continued since January 2014 building upon previous work in reducing remediation, strengthening career pathways, and accelerating progression to completion. Reducing Remediation. Since January 2014 the LBCP partners have intensified their focus on reducing remediation. The focus on reducing remediation is intended to address a key barrier to student progress and completion due to lengthy remedial sequences. In 2014, LBCP partners have approached reducing remediation systemically, by (1) expanding the alternative placement model and by (2) changing practices and systems to address improved preparation during high school. The LBCP partners believe these initiatives hold the greatest promise for improving college completion rates based on the previous gains experienced with complementary models. Expanded Alternative Placement Model. The alternative assessment and placement model has fundamentally changed the perception of student learning occurring in high school by identifying distinct metrics that are strong predictive indicators of future student performance; much stronger than the predictive utility of national standardized tests. Prior to implementing the alternative assessment model, LBUSD students were placed into college coursework solely based upon their score on a standardized test which was so closely aligned to their performance on the 11 th grade California Standardized Test (CST) that it completely disregarded all learning that occurred during the senior year in high school. The new alternative assessment model more accurately reflects learning that occurs in high school and better places students prepared for college-level coursework. The previous results of the alternative assessment model have demonstrated a 500% gain in students completing transfer-level English in the first year of college and a 200% gain for completing transfer-level math, and completion of transfer-level English and math are two of the strongest predictors of student degree completion and transfer. Thus, the alternative assessment model continues to be expanded, with over 3,700 students benefiting from the model over the last three years, 1,600 of which were admitted in the Fall 2014 cohort. The alternative assessment formulas continue to be fine-tuned, working towards the goal to standardize the model for all incoming freshmen at LBCC. Using innovation funds awarded to LBCC by the James Irvine Foundation in 2014, the English and math departments are expanding the alternative assessment model so that high school performance data is used for multiple levels of placement, providing even greater alignment of high school and college performance outcomes. Additionally, an alternative assessment formula for the remedial reading sequence is in development, which would further reduce the number of semesters spent on remediation and decrease time to completion and transfer. Currently, the alternative assessment is offered for students immediately graduating from high school. LBCC worked with LBUSD throughout 2014 to conduct studies on the viability of expanding the use of high school transcript data for placement up to two years after graduation and have found promising results and LBCC is exploring structures to allow LBUSD students within two years of high school graduation to benefit from alternative assessment as early as Fall This change in practice would increase the number of eligible students from 1,600 annually to over 2,500 with potentially January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 7

8 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise an additional 480 students completing transfer-level English and 230 students completing transfer-level math in their first year at LBCC. Collaborative High School Preparation. While the alternative placement model allows students who are prepared for college to jump right in, there are still a number of students that are not fully prepared and need additional support. The LBCP partners are in agreement that long remedial pathways are not the solution. This prompted, in 2014, looking at innovative projects that support improved preparation at the high school level and resulted in a significant system change. In reviewing gaps in high school student preparation for college, it became clear that the number of years of math completed in high school had a direct correlation with the level of student preparation for college-level math. High school students who didn t take math in their junior or senior year who successfully completed algebra in their sophomore year were much less likely to place into and successfully complete college-level math than students who had continued taking math courses. Using this data, LBUSD changed its graduation requirements to mandate four years of high school math. Similarly, in reviewing data on LBUSD students transferring to LBCC over a five-year period, the data showed that LBUSD students who struggle to pass algebra in the sophomore year almost never successfully completed college level math within six years, prompting the LBCP partners to discuss alternative curricular models targeting these students. The key to this work is the leveraging of shared data to implement early interventions aligned to college-level outcomes. This work builds upon the relationships developed between faculty at all three institutions through the faculty symposium series, semi-annual workshops that bring faculty together by discipline to discuss curricular alignment. In the spring of 2014, the symposium centered on the impact of Common Core on student preparation and instructional expectations. Based upon these changes at the high school level, the LBCP partnership anticipates improved results for successful transfer-level math completion. This is a significant barrier for the majority of students and if the strategies are successful, this would have a tremendous impact on progress towards completion. During Fall 2014, CSULB also began work with LBUSD on the Urban Math Collaborative, an effort providing mentoring and tutoring services to underrepresented students at LBUSD. The partnership has learned that the most effective strategies to reduce college remediation focus on increasing student preparation prior to high school graduation, and this responsibility is owned by all three institutions. The Urban Math Collaborative targets African American male students in math classes with the goal to increase academic performance and create role models using student peers. The innovation is building an infrastructure whereby LBUSD students are provided the supports needed to meet college-level math proficiency before high school graduation. The Urban Math Collaborative also engages families and encourages culturally informed curricular changes in the high school that promote a college-going culture for traditionally underserved students, leading to higher acceptance rates of these LBUSD students into CSULB. Starting in 2014, a freshman cohort of students will be added yearly with the goal to increase these students successful completion of all a-g math requirements by 5%. Strengthening Career Pathways. The LBCP partners have had unprecedented success in 2014, moving the needle and expanding the power of the Career Pathways framework. This work is instrumental in addressing duplication and gaps across educational segments, January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 8

9 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise reducing time to completion and creating clear, streamlined sequences that facilitate timely progress. Strengthening the presence of articulated career pathways across educational institutions speaks directly to the barrier of student completion caused by inadequate academic advising and a lack of clearly aligned academic programs. The Linked Learning model promotes career and major exploration early with K-12 students, preparing them to select a degree program upon arrival at college and to focus on the coursework needed to complete within a timely manner. This means that more students will have met major prerequisites when applying to CSULB, increasing the number of students eligible to be admitted to the university and reducing the number of units accumulated that cannot be applied to the major a student ultimately selects. The articulated career pathways also expedite transfer pathways from LBCC to CSULB, with students attending LBCC also benefitting from early college coursework completion and streamlined course scheduling. Each of these benefits also yields significant cost savings to both students and institutions as duplication of coursework is reduced once sequences are aligned. In 2014 the partners secured more than $21 million in funding to support innovative pathway expansion, received an additional $22.7 million to support increased college preparation for underrepresented students, launched a new non-profit, LBCALL, and added the commitment of the City of Long Beach to secure support from industry partners. The anticipated results include an increase in the number of students who meet major prerequisites upon applying to CSULB, an increase in the number of students who declare a major within the first semester at LBCC, and subsequently reduced time-to-degreecompletion for students participating in career pathways by a half-semester over the next few years. CA Pathways Trust Grants. The full integration of the Linked Learning model in LBUSD high schools, and the subsequent development of articulated academic pathways within specific industry sectors in partnership with LBCC and CSULB, has led to national recognition for LBCP in its career pathways work. The Linked Learning model focuses on infusing challenging academics, technical skills, work-based learning, and intentional student support into all instruction and student experiences. In 2014, LBCC was awarded a $15 million Career Pathways Trust Grant as the regional lead for manufacturing and engineering and LBUSD was awarded a $6 million Career Pathways Trust Grant for healthcare. These awards acknowledged LBCP s ability to develop seamless programs of study from high school into college aligned with key industry sectors, with each pathway connected to high-wage employment opportunities upon degree completion. Throughout 2014, the projects have been focused on increasing access systemically to concurrent enrollment opportunities, enabling high school students to earn meaningful college credits, engaging faculty to align curriculum and student learning outcomes, ensuring seamless transitions, and streamlining the matriculation process for high school students to break down access barriers, particularly for first-generation college students. These efforts additionally provide a substantial cost savings for students as they build their college transcripts at no cost while attending high school. The project and funding runs through 2018 and provides seed funding for systems change and continued pilot innovations in career pathway development. Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity. In 2014, CSULB received the largest grant in institutional history, $22.7 million, from the National Institutes of Health, under January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 9

10 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise the new, innovative federal initiative, Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD). CSULB received one of only ten awards in the nation to support increased college preparation and progress for underrepresented students in the areas of biomedical and behavioral sciences. CSULB also has ongoing Hispanic-Serving STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) funding. This places CSULB and its partner institutions in a highly visible national leadership role in preparing students for career in critical STEM fields that are vital to the future of the region, state and nation. Long Beach Collaborative for Advancing Linked Learning. The Long Beach Collaborative for Advancing Linked Learning is a built-for-purpose non-profit intermediary that will support the three educational partners as they strive to systemically and collaboratively engage business and industry in the college completion agenda. Core to the Linked Learning model is the work-based learning element which couples career exploration with real-world work experience. LBCALL s primary focus will be to establish an infrastructure, including staffing and expertise, for providing internships, industry tours, and regional industry-sponsored events. The expansion of the internship infrastructure, a core function of LBCALL, is aimed at catalyzing student progression through career pathways by infusing workplace relevancy into the student experience. For example, the Boston Private Industry Council, a model that informed the establishment of LBCALL, has developed a robust internship model for high school students, finding that participating students graduate from high school and enroll into college at higher rates than their peers (Boston PIC, 2014); studies have also found that college students participating in internship programs are more likely to persist in college and perform better academically (Wang & Owens, 1995, Stern & Nakata, 1991), increasing overall bachelor s degree completion rates and community college transfer rates. In 2014, LBCALL was instrumental in engaging local industry leaders in key industry sectors in the development of career pathways. For example, LBCALL launched monthly workforce development team meetings for the healthcare sector, which include local hospital administrators, educational partners, non-profits, and foundations that have led to program development in healthcare, including concurrent enrollment, simulation technology programs, and employment placement opportunities. City of Long Beach. In 2014, the LBCP partnership expanded to include the City of Long Beach with support of the newly elected Mayor, Robert Garcia. Mayor Garcia signed the partnership compact, committing resources and support to the college completion partnership goals, issuing a public call to action to local businesses to provide paid internships in partnership with the local education partners. This provided greatly needed momentum for the educational partners to expand the paid student internships from 1,500 in 2014 to 3,000 by To accomplish this, key stakeholders have begun to convene in 2014, including the college partners and the local workforce investment board. Each of the partners have agreed to the common goal of 3,000 internships and are working collaboratively to ensure progress, including supporting the much needed infrastructure that will be provided by the establishment of LBCALL. Accelerating Progression to Completion. The LBCP partners have found that accelerating time to completion for students is system level work that requires envisioning a new standard and way of operating both within the organization and across partner organizations. The LBCP partners have been committed to ensuring that the gains outlined January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 10

11 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise in previous initiatives are evaluated, sustained and provide an infrastructure that enables leveraged and maximum impact of successful strategies. To this end, as of January 2014, the LBCP partners have continued to innovate with strategies that support accelerated time to completion through the expansion of two key initiatives: (1) LBCC s Promise Pathways and the (2) CSULB s Highly Valued Degree Initiative. The LBCP partners believe these initiatives hold the greatest promise for improving college completion rates. Promise Pathways. The goal of Promise Pathways is to accelerate progress towards degree completion and transfer by reducing time spent in remedial sequences and streamlining student enrollment practices. By implementing the alternative assessment model and guaranteeing student enrollment into required coursework in English, reading and math, students in the first two cohorts saved a total of over 1,400 semesters in completing their college-level math and English requirements; cohort three, which started in Fall 2014, has already saved 725 semesters. By increasing the number of students who participate in these structured pathways, the LBCP partnership anticipates decreasing the average time-to-transfer for LBCC students by an average of one-quarter of a semester and thereby the average time-to-bachelor s-degree completion by one-half semester. Building upon previous work, the Promise Pathways program saw (1) an expansion of partners, (2) the launch of Beach Pathways, a direct transfer program with CSULB and (3) the establishment of a new summer bridge component. The Promise Pathways program enrolled over 1,600 students in Fall of 2014 and scaled the model to include four additional school districts and a total of 30 high schools. This expansion proved the replicability of LBCP models to other regions across the state and provided expanded access to students throughout the region. A cohort of Promise Pathways, known as Beach Pathways, was also developed for local students who historically would have met CSULB s admissions requirements before the university went to full impaction. Beach Pathways guaranteed a three-semester transfer program from LBCC to CSULB and has served 50 students within the first two years. These cohort pathways will continue to be expanded to more students until they become the standard experience for all incoming LBCC students. In the summer of 2014, LBCC and LBUSD hosted its first summer bridge program for Promise Pathways students, providing a two-day orientation for all incoming LBUSD students and a three-week supplemental bridge program covering academic preparation in study skills, reading, and educational planning. In addition, LBCC expanded its parent workshop series in English and Spanish to increase parent involvement and understanding of financial aid processes, academic support resources, and new student matriculation requirements. Over 200 parents participated in the parent workshop series, with 69% of all LBUSD students completing the FAFSA by the priority deadline. Studies have found that summer bridge programs can have a positive impact on students successful completion of remedial coursework, which results in reduced time to degree and transfer (Barnett, 2012). Similarly, parent involvement in supporting college students has been found to have a positive impact on student persistence and success (Savage, 2009). The summer bridge program and parent workshops will be expanded, with the goal to increase the number of LBUSD students completing the FAFSA by the priority deadline to 90%. Highly Valued Degree Initiative. Building upon prior successes, in 2014 CSULB s Highly Valued Degrees Initiative launched and expanded two new innovations (1) electronic advising tools and (2) new digital learning technologies. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 11

12 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Using digital products developed by the Education Advisory Board, the University of Arizona, and CSU Chico, CSULB has pioneered the implementation of the eadvising initiative (to be adopted by other CSUs) which provides students and advisors with customized academic plans and semester schedules, significantly reducing time to completion for bachelor s degrees. The eadvising initiative includes a class schedule planner that integrates semester schedules with other student obligations, such as work or family responsibilities; an advisor connect function that allows students to easily schedule appointments with their academic advisors; a degree planner that optimizes semester planning with real-time feedback on the impact of course selections on time to completion; and a predictive tool that identifies for advisors where students are not progressing towards completion and interventions are needed. These tools are all designed to help students achieve success and stay on track for a timely graduation. During the last year, LBCC implemented initial electronic advising tools as well, and the conversation has begun as to how to leverage the eadvising successes at CSULB across the three institutions. Second in 2014, CSULB began the planning and implementation of projects to improve learning and accelerate time to degree using digital technologies: fully-online courses and hybrid/flipped courses. Our strategic, evidence-based approach utilizes both fully online courses and hybrid courses that mix both face-to-face and online components, but uses each with slightly different purpose. Fully online courses enable matriculated students to take an additional class that cannot be included in a weekly face-to-face schedule, accelerating time to degree. Courses selected for fully online conversion are courses which students currently complete at high rates. CSULB has converted 125 courses to fully online formats. Hybrid courses have a different purpose, to improve learning, by making best use of valuable face-to-face time along with digital augmentations. Evidence suggests that hybrid/flipped courses can improve student learning, reducing failure rates and reducing the need for course repeats. Courses selected for hybrid/flipped conversion are courses which completion rates are currently low and use of digital technologies is likely to improve outcomes. CSULB has converted just six courses to hybrid/flipped formats (but expansion plans exist; see below). Similarly, LBCC piloted flipped courses in math resulting in significant gains in successful student course completion and degree progression. The implementation of digital learning technologies within LBCP is a direct re-engineering of instructional practices with huge potential gains in student learning and degree progress and opens a new frontier for cross-institutional collaboration within the classroom environment. Results for the Highly Valued Degree Initiative have been dramatic. In looking at the last three six-year cohorts, CSULB has admitted 13,067 freshman and graduated 6,952 within six years, representing 444 more students that have graduated because of the initiative s efforts. Similarly, in the five cohorts that have yet to complete the six years, 1,607 more freshman have been retained than would have been retained under the previous cohort persistence rates. Additionally, 482 more transfer students have been retained during the same time period, resulting in more than 3,000 additional students who have completed or are on track to complete a bachelor s degree than in prior years. Continuing this work into the future is anticipated to yield similar results, leading to the increase in bachelor s degree attainment to the proposed 70% for freshmen and 74% for transfers by January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 12

13 Innovation Section 5 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Key Policies, Practices, Systems to be implemented after January 10, In October 2014, the LBCP partners recommitted to the partnership goals and the City of Long Beach became an official partner of the Long Beach College Promise, prompting a need for LBCP to establish an updated work plan for integrating the City into the existing goals and strategies of the partnership. This work was conducted in November of 2014 and continues to be framed within the three primary strategies previously identified: reducing remediation, strengthening career pathways, and accelerating progression to completion. The institutional commitments to continued innovation and progress for each of the identified strategies is evident in the investment of leveraged resources, both external funding awards and internal personnel/funding, the inclusion of these goals and strategies in each of the organizations board goals and the joint annual report to the community outlining progress on each of the identified goals and strategies. Reducing Remediation. LBCP will continue to reduce remediation through the alternative assessment model, the Urban Math Collaborative, and institutional alignment efforts supported by the faculty symposium series. In addition, this work will be expanded in three areas. First, LBCC and the City of Long Beach will be integrated into activities similar to the Urban Math Collaborative, leveraging institutional and city resources to align existing mentoring and tutoring efforts around shared local college preparation criteria. Some of the groundwork for this broader collaboration has been laid through the Long Beach Latino Student Success grant, a sub-strategy of LBCP that coordinated college preparation activities across 19 local non-profit organizations. Second, the faculty symposium series will be expanded into a fully integrated professional development plan for all three educational institutions, targeting high-impact practices such as the use of digital technologies and vertical counseling teams - counseling teams comprised of representatives from each of the three institutions supporting seamless matriculation and transitions. The third area of expansion is the most aggressive: using results from the Common Core s new Smarter Balance assessment administered in the eleventh grade, LBUSD will redesign the senior year scheduling process to mandate remediation coursework designed in collaboration with CSULB and LBCC with the goal to eliminate all remediation before high school graduation. Again, the work of alternative assessment, the Math Collaboration Project, and the faculty symposium series have built the framework where this level of intense cross-institutional collaboration can occur and where all institutions are committed to investing resources in the senior year of high school to ultimately increase gains in bachelor s degree completion. Strengthening Career Pathways. The work on the Career Pathways Trust grants will continue to unfold over the next few years, and these efforts will be used to frame standard processes for career pathway development and industry sector engagement. For , LBCP will significantly expand dual enrollment offerings tied to LBUSD s small learning communities with an emphasis in STEM fields. The goal is to double the number of students earning degree-relevant college credit in high school, thereby decreasing time to degree completion. Additionally, LBCP will continue to grow internship opportunities, with the rollout of LBCALL and the doubling of existing internship opportunities (from 1,500 to January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 13

14 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise 3,000), as called for by the first phase of the system-wide experiential work-based learning plan. Accelerating Progression to Completion. As mentioned in the section on current efforts, Promise Pathways and Beach Pathways will continue to be expanded to provide access for more students to streamlined transfer pathways, including summer bridge and parent workshop programs. CSULB s Highly Valued Degrees Initiative has been fully institutionalized, and CSULB plans to convert 50 more courses to fully online formats and another 20 to hybrid/flipped courses within the next year. This work will be leveraged within the integrated cross-institutional professional development plan, starting with the development of joint faculty projects focused on the SB 1440 Associate Degrees for Transfer (ADTs). LBCC has committed to adding additional ADTs each year for the next two years, and faculty from LBCC and CSULB will develop curriculum and scheduling processes within the ADTs that build into the new major-preparation admissions structure. Finally, the three educational institutions have begun exploring a common student electronic advising tool that guides students toward bachelor s degree completion by tracking individual student progress at each institutional level. CSULB s eadvising tools will be used as a model to inform the development of this common advising tool, and vertical counseling teams will be created to ensure seamless degree progression from high school to community college to university, including common career and major exploration resources. The most significant evidence of the commitment of LBCP to future change is the extent to which the partnership has institutionalized successful strategies and funded them within each institution s operating budgets. Broad-based initiatives, including Promise Pathways and the Highly Valued Degrees Initiative, have been fully funded by institutional operating funds since their inceptions and will continue to be budgeted as such; the expansion of students participating in Promise Pathways and Beach Pathways has already been budgeted for as well as the funds needed to convert CSULB courses into fully online, hybrid, and flipped classroom formats. Monies have also been allocated annually from the institutions to support the work of LBCALL, and the Mayor s Office has committed resources for internship development. In addition, LBCC and LBUSD have already built resources into their annual budgets to cover the initial infrastructure costs associated with a common electronic advising tool and dual enrollment expansion. Where possible, the LBCP partnership has accessed grant funds to cover the cost of degree completion strategies and has been mindful to align all grant funds to existing strategies so as to fully institutionalize the successful activities that emerge from the grants. Finally, LBCP strategies have been designed in such a way as to meet multiple State efforts, ensuring eligibility for multiple funding streams, and ensuring that the work is aligned with the highest priority work across institutions. For example, the work within the Urban Math Collaborative and the integrated cross-institutional professional development plan dovetail with the objectives of the Student Success and Support Program, the Student Equity Plan, State Common Core implementation and the Local Control Funding formula. By ensuring coordination and focus within the broader mission of the three educational institutions, LBCP is able to maximize existing resources to achieve the greatest possible outcomes. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 14

15 Innovation Section 6 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Impact on Average Cost to Bachelor s Degree. There are two approaches that LBCP is taking to reduce the average cost for students in completing a bachelor s degree. The first approach is to reduce the time required, measured in the number of semesters, to complete the bachelor s degree and the second is to reduce the cost per unit for students. The first approach holds significant impact for both the cost incurred by students and the overall operating budgets across the campuses. The LBCP partners have already shown the ability to reduce time-to-completion at multiple contact points for students. For example, translated into real costs savings, over the last three years, the alternative assessment model has saved students from having to take sequenced remedial courses that would have required an additional 1,200 semesters to complete, equating to 10,842 additional course units at a cost of $498,732. By reducing remediation even further during the senior year of high school, these savings could easily triple within two years. The alignment of advising and the structure provided by CSULB s Highly Valued Degrees Initiative have also shown evidence of decreasing time to completion and LBCP is confident that it can reduce time to bachelor s degree completion for one-half of students from LBUSD by one semester (reducing average time to degree to 4.7 years from 5.2) and for one-quarter of transfers from LBCC by one semester (reducing average time to degree to 2.8 years from 3.1). If successful, these changes would affect nearly 600 students per year, bringing benefits to currently enrolled students and their families, and would expand access to higher education at no additional cost to the State. Since the cost of attendance at CSULB is estimated at $20,000 per year (tuition, fees, living expenses), students not supported by financial aid and who reduce time to degree by one semester would save about $10,000 each in avoided costs of attendance. For those students supported by financial aid, similar avoided costs would accrue to financial aid programs. Since average time to degree would reduce, CSULB capacity would be made available, creating access for nearly 300 new admissions per year at no additional cost to the state of California, saving the State about $1.7m per year at the current state direct appropriation rate per student to the CSU. In addition, financial aid, estimated at about $2.3m (much from the State of California), could be reallocated to new incoming students, supporting muchneeded expanded access to college. In addition, CSULB has the goal of scaling up these improvements to benefit students beyond those originating in the Long Beach area. If successful, the campus could create additional access for over 1,300 students each year that would otherwise cost the State as much as $8.3m in direct appropriation and the campus could reallocate nearly $11m in financial aid dollars to support these new students. The second approach to reducing the average cost to bachelor s degree completion dovetails with reducing time by increasing the number of high school students earning transferrable college units through LBCC. Not only do students finish degree coursework more quickly, but they also pay at most the much lower community college tuition fee rates. By increasing the number of high school students meeting admissions requirements for CSULB that complete six college units through concurrent enrollment, these students would save $1,737 each for a total of $1.3 million annually. While these practices will clearly reduce costs, they will also impact student gains made through increased lifetime earnings as a result of general degree attainment and additional work years during later high earning potential years. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 15

16 Innovation Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise 7. Potential Risks, Tradeoffs or Unintended Consequences. Throughout the innovations piloted across the LBCP partners risks, tradeoffs and concerns have been weighed and evaluated for maximum impact and minimal harm. The motto for the LBCP partners is every student, every day. This mantra really ensures a focus on all student populations and guarantees that the intent and implementation of any pilot is scalable, sustainable and accessible to all students, including the most vulnerable student populations. The partnership s innovations have seen student performance gains for all students disaggregated by race/ethnicity and gender, such as in the completion of transfer level English and math and in bachelor s degree completion through the Highly Valued Degree Initiative. Additionally, comprehensive data collection and analysis, regular formative evaluation and continuous program improvement are hallmarks of the partnership and guide each of the innovations to ensure that the end results are impactful and support student success for every student at each of the partner institutions. In analyzing potential risks and tradeoffs, three areas of concern emerged most significantly. First, the greatest strength of the partnership is its focus on a pipeline of local students, which has meant success for all student sub-groups within this population. However, with the focus on the local pipeline, there is the risk that students who don t immediately transition into college from local high schools will be marginalized or underserved due to the redirection of resources. To mitigate this risk, all of the LBCP innovations are built to be scaled so that effective strategies can be accessed by all students. For example, the Promise Pathways initially began with only LBUSD students but within three years has been expanded to 5 unified school districts and 30 high schools; successful Promise Pathways activities, including a math bridge course and mentoring program, have been opened to general student participation as well. The efforts within the Highly Valued Degree Initiative and the expansion of digital technologies in the classroom at CSULB have targeted both freshmen and transfer students. Additionally, the development of career pathways has included multiple entry points and has been scaled for all students in the selected disciplines. Finally, the LBCP partners have worked together to provide services to student groups needing additional support. For example, LBCC and CSULB both partner with US Department of Veterans Affairs to house Vet Success programs on campus and both have been recognized as a 2015 Military Friendly School. CSULB sits on the LBCC Disabled Student Programs and Services and Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (DSPS/EOPS) Advisory Committees serving students with disabilities and first generation students, and both institutions have robust programs and services for these student populations. Both LBCC and CSULB have also expanded services for foster youth in the last few years. The second area of concern relates to managing the workload requirements of the different innovations on staff and faculty, particularly on faculty who play a core role in instructional strategies. There is always the risk that expectations for faculty participation will be overwhelming and detract from their focus on student learning in their classrooms. To mitigate this concern, each innovation such as changes to remedial sequences, career pathways development, and the conversion of courses into online or hybrid versions is targeted to specific disciplines to avoid overlapping participation requirements. Faculty January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 16

17 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise leadership are included in the planning process to assist in monitoring faculty involvement as well, and existing participation structures are used wherever possible to minimize new work, such as the faculty symposium series, institutional program planning processes, and faculty teaching and learning center structures. The third area of concern also grows out of the primary strength of the LBCP partnership, namely that the concerted effort to streamline student movement from LBUSD and LBCC to CSULB may underemphasize other viable transfer options to other CSU/UC campuses or private institutions. The mission of the LBCP has been to create local opportunity for local students leading to increased bachelor s degree attainment, but the partners have always encouraged students to consider all postsecondary options available to them. For example, the common electronic advising tool being explored by the three educational institutions is based upon the eadvising tool that will be used by all CSU campuses. Such a tool would provide students with built-in flexibility when engaging in academic planning to consider programs at all CSU locations. The LBCP partners have also engaged in regional work through the Career Pathways Trust Grants to facilitate program and course articulation between colleges so that high school students will be able to transfer earned college units to multiple institutions in the local area. Finally, the LBCP partners have been mindful in academic advising to provide a breadth of information on universities, including the UCs, and have worked closely with UCLA and UC Irvine to promote the Guaranteed Admissions Program (TAG) for LBCC transfer students. The LBCP partners monitor these risks routinely through the analysis of disaggregated data on student performance. Results for LBUSD students and other students participating in innovations are compared to their peer groups and data are disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, economic status, disability status, foster youth and veteran status. Annual data on the percentage of LBUSD students entering college and LBCC students transferring is reviewed as well, and results are shared with key departments and all LBCP partners. This monitoring and continuous improvement process is conducted through the LBCP Leadership Team meetings which happen monthly, ensuring ongoing and consistent analysis and review. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 17

18 Sustainability Section 8 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Organizational Leadership. The primary assets of the LBCP partnership have been the longstanding commitment by the leadership across each of the organizations to work collaboratively with an intentional focus to ensure student success. The CEOs of the three institutions meet together regularly to discuss the work of the partnership, and the mayor has recently been added to these meetings; these leaders also regularly attend panels and events together to promote the LBCP locally, statewide, and nationally, including a recent trip to the White House s College Opportunity Summit. It is also important to note that even when changes in leadership have occurred the organizations come together to ensure that new leadership continues the commitment and culture. This was recently tested with the hiring of a new President at CSULB. President Jane Close Conoley has stepped in and deeply embraced the Promise and was part of the new recommitment in The leadership to drive the systemic changes that have occurred is also not limited to the presidents or superintendents. Vice presidents, provosts, and assistant superintendents sit alongside faculty leaders and other academic administrators on the LBCP Leadership Team and meet regularly to discuss the progress of innovations. The leadership continues at all levels, from the faculty leading curriculum changes, to the research departments developing evidence-based designs, to the front line matriculation teams working relentlessly to ensure seamless transitions from one organization to the next. Initiative groups with broad representation are built around key areas of innovation to provide a structure for cross-institutional collaboration to assist in facilitating this ongoing work. Another asset is the solutions orientation of every leader engaged in the innovative LBCP work. Every barrier presented produces an opportunity for creative problem solving, thoughtful questioning of status quo, and the ability to engage critical thought partners beyond individual institutions. The permission to envision a new normal for our institutions and ultimately for the success of every student is a driving force behind each of the innovations detailed throughout this proposal. The collaboration encompassed in each innovative solution has also been imperative to the ultimate success of the pilots. This collaborative, solutions orientated culture is deeply embedded at each of the institutions and is what ensures that the innovations piloted take root, stir future innovations and continue to grow to scale. The longstanding partnerships and culture of communication also provide the foundation for the development of joint goals, mutually reinforcing activities, and the joint accountability to our community. This commitment to one another and ultimately to the community also ensures that appropriate levels of accountability are established for each of the partners, including, importantly, supporting improvements at partner institutions rather than placing blame. Lastly, the LBCP leaders recognize that another key asset is committing to a robust communications plan that will not only establish enhanced internal communications across institutions, but will also bring the innovative work to the external education and research communities. The communications plan currently includes documenting and communicating the practices and interventions that are initiated through the LBCP, as well as research briefings on the resulting outcomes. Shared Vision. As detailed in the previous sections, the LBCP has long standing goals that have been jointly developed across institutions and with detailed metrics at each of the January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 18

19 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise partner institutions. The goals and metrics are always made public to the community and culminate with an annual report on progress and impact. The establishment of the common goals and metrics is a significant key asset of the LBCP partnership and ensures that the partners remain focused on a common agenda. However, the goals and vision of the partnership go beyond the four primary partners to include several key stakeholder organizations throughout the Long Beach community. A key example of the broad reaching partnership work is the Latino Student Success initiative that was led by LBCC and funded by the Lumina Foundation. The primary work of this project was to launch a collective impact agenda throughout the Long Beach community. The key principles of a collective impact agenda include a common agenda, a shared measurement system, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication and a backbone organization that supports the sustainability of the community collective. The four year project provided seed funding to bring 19 non-profits throughout the Long Beach community to a common table to identify how to align programming, resources and data to maximize the impact of each organization towards the common goals of college access and completion. This work provided the opportunity to the education partners to broaden the resources and organizations that provide support to students at every level. The launch of LBCALL will further the work of engaging community stakeholders such as business and industry and demonstrates the ongoing commitment to bring additional partners to the table to support The Long Beach College Promise. The goals and vision of The Long Beach College Promise are also in perfect alignment with the major education reform initiatives occurring across the state and nation. The call for increased completions, increased collaboration, infusion of new technologies and the leveraging of resources and partnerships is exactly what the LBCP encompasses. The partners have leveraged each of the major reform initiatives to support and further the work of increased college completions for every student. Institutional Commitments. The LBCP shared vision began with the seamless education partnership in It evolved into The Long Beach College Promise through the 2008 Promise Compact signed by LBUSD Superintendent Chris Steinhauser, LBCC Superintendent/President Eloy Ortiz-Oakley, and CSULB President Alexander King. More recently in October 2014 the Promise was reaffirmed with the addition of the Mayor s office and the new CSULB president, Jane Close Conoley. This milestone event demonstrates the intentional pursuit of securing leadership across organizations that is committed to continuing the important, groundbreaking work that is occurring as a result of the partnership as well as the impact of bringing new entities to the partnership that provide new levels of support and opportunities for broader engagement. Additionally, the commitment of each institution was confirmed through the Commitment to Action on College Opportunity through the White House s recent College Opportunity Summit. The LBCP partners have committed both nationally and locally to continue their efforts into the future and have established a clear agenda for the next two-year period. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 19

20 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Sustainability Section 9. Stakeholder Engagement Plan. Given the strength and outcomes of the LBCP the four partners are deeply committed to the innovations that have been presented in this application. Additionally, the structure, a promise to our community, has really fostered a deep sense of community-wide ownership, as evidenced by the recent commitments of the Mayor and the annual reports to the community on progress. Given the full engagement of the primary partners the LBCP partners have established robust engagement plans for internal stakeholders (ongoing), external community and business organizations, and fellow education partners interested in moving forward with similar innovations. Internal Stakeholders. The Long Beach Education Foundation acts as a convener for the LBCP, with each institution assisting in funding the executive director. A solid governance structure was established for the LBCP in 2008 consisting of a Leadership Council, four subcommittees and four operations teams. These groups consist of representatives from each of the partners and maintain three co-chairs. The composition of each of the groups is very diverse, representing faculty, administrators, and staff from each of the institutions. Recently, the teams have noted the absence of the student voice and have prioritized student focus groups to support including the student perspective when designing pilot models. Additionally, student focus groups will be conducted to evaluate the student matriculation and transition experience to better inform modifications to the admission and enrollment processes. External Stakeholders. The LBCP partners have committed to continuing the collective impact work piloted through the Lumina Foundation Latino Student Success project and to the launch of the new built-for-purpose intermediary organization, LBCALL. These two efforts are designed specifically to broaden the engagement of external partners, both non-profits and businesses, in the college completion agenda efforts. Core to this work is the new role that the Mayor of Long Beach will now play in encouraging city-wide support for the LBCP efforts. This support includes the hiring of new staff dedicated to supporting the LBCP strategies from both an implementation and a policy perspective. The Mayor will also lead efforts to increase awareness of the LBCP within and beyond Long Beach and engage a broad group of stakeholders to support this effort. Education Partners. Through several venues the LBCP partners have reached out to and paved the way for fellow education partners to engage in similar education reform initiatives. Key examples include CSULB s pilot work in eadvising which will become a model for the CSU system, LBCC s transformative work in alternative placement which is being replicated through a state-wide pilot, and LBUSD s leadership as a mentor district for the Linked Learning model. The partners also serve as a model for collaboration and cross organization change with more than 30 institutions visiting Long Beach to learn about The Long Beach College Promise. Additionally, as part of the new CA Pathways Trust grants 19 school districts, both secondary and postsecondary, have signed contracts pledging to adopt key success strategies at their institutions. This has led to new funding for a Regional Hub of Excellence in Long Beach, funded by the James Irvine Foundation. This hub will be dedicated to serving as an anchor organization for innovative work occurring throughout the region and will bring additional technical assistance resources from organizations such as the Linked Learning Alliance, CA ConnectED, Jobs for the Future, and the National Academy Foundation. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 20

21 Sustainability Section 10. Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Sustainable Funding Plan. The LBCP partners are committed to institutionalizing strategies that demonstrate success in achieving the partnership college completion goals, leveraging new funding that supports education reforms, and securing external grant funding that aligns with the goals and completion agenda. Institutionalization. The innovations throughout this application have been accomplished primarily during one of the nation s worst economic recessions and with significant cuts to each of the education institutions budgets. Additionally, this work has been accomplished with primarily no new funding from its inception. Yet, the work moved forward and the results have been unprecedented. This humble beginning should demonstrate the commitment of each of the organizations to commit existing general fund resources to support transformative system change. To date each of the partners have committed personnel, facilities, equipment and general funds to support the launch and progress of The Long Beach College Promise and will continue to fund joint activities. As with each of the innovations, the LBCP partners commit to implementing and sustaining the successful changes described throughout the application without new funding. In most cases the budgets for the proposed activities have already been secured. New Education Funding. Through new education initiatives such as AB86, the Student Success and Support Program, Student Equity, CTE Enhancement Funds, ADTs, and the new Local Control Funding Formula, the LBCP partners are working to align new resources to the established goals and activities. As outlined in previous sections, the work of the LBCP is perfectly aligned to the state-wide initiatives recently launched as they all are working to support increased student success through seamless pathways and increased college completion. Additionally, as the majority of this new funding requires enhanced collaboration the LBCP partners are well positioned to maximize these investments and leverage them appropriately and authentically. External Grant Funding. Over the past year the LBCP partners have been tremendously successful in securing new external grant funding to directly support the college completion goals. New funding has included both the CA Pathways Trust grants for an investment of $21 million, as well as a separate $22.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to CSULB (one of only ten awards in the nation) to support increased college preparation and progress for underrepresented students in the areas of biomedical and behavioral sciences. Each of the projects require the full participation of each of the partners and supports various elements of the project activities. Each of the partners very selectively pursued external grant funding where it aligns with the LBCP goals and strategies, and where it supports furthering the implementation of activities that support the core goals and agenda. These fund development efforts will continue be a priority for the partners and a full listing of grant funds directly supporting the LBCP is provided in the attached appendices. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 21

22 Evaluation Section 11 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Detailed below are the targeted measures, both quantitative and qualitative, and evaluation methods that will be implemented. Metrics data will be collected, analyzed and reported on annually while being designed to also show long-term impact. Evaluation results will be analyzed by the partners for impact and will drive program improvements. All measures will be disaggregated by racial/ethnic group, low income, foster & disabled student groups. Goal #1: Increase college participation rates for underrepresented students Innovations: Expand Linked Learning; Expand concurrent enrollment; Expand Summer Bridge program; Scale-up Promise Pathways and Beach Pathways programs Measures: Number & percent of LBUSD graduates who enroll in college immediately after graduation; Disaggregate data by racial/ethnic group, low income, foster, & disabled student groups Evaluation Methods: Track concurrent enrollment; monitor average # of college units completed by graduation; survey & interview students on perceived value of degree attainment & relation to career; Monitor enrollment, success & progress measures for summer bridge; Monitor participation rates in Promise Pathways & Beach Pathways programs & compare college progress & completion rates to non-program students. Goal #2: Increase completions of associate degrees for transfer Innovations: Expand participation in Promise Pathways program; Continue to develop and market Associate Degree for Transfer (ADT) options Measures: Number & percent of students who complete ADTs; average # units & semesters to complete ADTs; Count & percent of LBCC transfers to CSULB Evaluation Methods: Track cohorts for time to complete ADTs; Monitor alignment of ADT majors with ultimate major for BA degree (high mismatch should be investigated using transcript analyses and student survey/focus groups); Disaggregate outcome measures for students who matriculate directly to CSULB and students who earn ADTs & transfer Goal #3: Increase completions of bachelor s degrees Innovations: Promise Pathways & ADTs expansion; Highly Valued Degree Initiative & Major Specific Admissions; Expansion of digital technologies Measures: Count & percent of first-time CSULB freshmen to complete BA/S degree; average # units & semesters for first-time CSULB freshmen to complete BA/S degree; Count & percent of LBCC transfers who complete BA degree; average # units & semesters for LBCC transfers to complete BA/S degree Evaluation Methods: Use survey, focus group and ethnographic research methods to illuminate and evaluate student experience Goals #4: Accelerate rate of degree completion Innovations: Redesign of senior year remediation requirements; Alternative Assessment model; Guaranteed Admission & Courses; Summer Bridge; Urban Math Collaborative Measures: Number & percent of LBUSD students requiring remediation; Percent of students who complete transfer-level English & math in their first year of college; average # units & semesters to complete ADTs and BA/Ss Evaluation Methods: Track LBUSD cohort remediation needs; Survey students & faculty on perceived appropriateness of course placement, effectiveness of summer bridge, & Math Collaboration Project January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 22

23 Evaluation Section 12 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Target Outcomes. The annual target outcomes are based on the 2020 LBCP goals to increase college participation, associate degree for transfer and bachelor s degree completions, and to accelerate the rate of degree completion. Goals and Objectives Baseline Increase college participation Obj. 1: Increase percentage of students enrolling in college directly from high school Increase ADT completions Obj. 2: Increase number of students completing ADT degrees Obj. 3: Increase number of LBCC transfer students to CSULB Obj.4: Increase percent of N/A LBUSD students who complete ADT in 2 years. Increase BA degree completions Obj. 5: Increase students from LBUSD completing bachelor s degrees within 6 years of high school graduation entering CSULB Obj. 6: Increase the percent of LBCC transfer students who complete bachelor s degree at CSULB within 4 years of transferring to CSULB Accelerate degree completion Obj. 7: Decrease the percent of LBUSD students requiring remediation at LBCC % 50% 52% 54% 56% 58% 60% Baseline TBD 60% 63% 64% 65% 67% 69% 71% 73% 72% 74% 75% 76% 77% 78% 80% 75% 72% 69% 66% 62% 58% 55% January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 23

24 Long Beach City College The Long Beach College Promise Targets for Underrepresented Student Groups. Each of the LBCP partners are committed to improving the educational outcomes for underrepresented student groups and continue to focus efforts on closing achievement gaps for specific measures. The student statistical profiles presented in the Context Section 2 shows how the partnership itself supports college access for Hispanic, African American, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander and lowincome high school graduates. Another example is a recent disproportionate impact study of LBCC students highlighting persistent achievement gaps for students of color in college preparedness, degree completion and transfer. Disabled and economically disadvantaged students were also disproportionately represented in transfers. As the LBCP partnership continues to evolve and data sharing continues to focus on monitoring the specific objectives presented in this proposal, disaggregated baseline measures for each of the seven measurable objectives shown in the table above will be determined and annual targets agreed upon. Target development. Steady increases in college participation are expected as concurrent enrollment opportunities continue to expand in alignment with continued career pathways development. The first 29 associate degrees for transfer were awarded by LBCC in This number grew to nearly 200 the following year, and 300 LBCC students earned their ADTs in Given that there are currently 13 ADTs available for students and another ten in development, the target of doubling the number of ADTs by 2020 was deemed feasible. Early successes of the Highly Valued Degree Initiative and expanded use of technology, predictive analytics and vertical counseling teams, provide the LBCP partners confidence that at least 200 additional bachelor s degrees will be awarded to LBUSD students in 2020 than were completed in Finally, curricular redesign at LBUSD along with the alternative placement model used at LBCC, have resulted in strong gains in accelerating students successful progress through college coursework. This has been the case particularly for underrepresented students. LBUSD s planned redesign of senior year remediation requirements, expansion of the alternative placement model, and further development of Summer Bridge to LBCC and the Urban Math Collaborative are expected to reduce the number of students needing remediation by about 450 of the roughly 2500 student cohort of college-going LBUSD graduates by Data Sources. The data sources used for the chart above have been pulled from student cohort data by each of the three educational partners. Through collaborative efforts data sharing agreements have been established across each of the partners which enables reporting on student performance as they transition from one institution to the other. These agreements ensure that institutions have access to real-time information on student performance once they transition, as well as the ability to evaluate aggregate data regarding the overall impact of targeted strategies. January 2015 Award for Innovation in Higher Education Pg. 24

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31 LONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SERVING LONG BEACH, LAKEWOOD, SIGNAL HILL AND AVALON OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT 1515 HUGHES WAY LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA (562) FAX (562) January 9, 2015 Awards for Innovation in Higher Education Committee California Department of Finance Education Systems Unit Innovation Awards 7th Floor 915 L Street Sacramento, CA RE: LETTER IN SUPPORT OF THE LONG BEACH COLLEGE PROMISE AWARDS FOR INNOVATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION APPLICATION Dear Awards for Innovation in Higher Education Committee Members: The Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) wholeheartedly supports the nomination of the Long Beach College Promise Partnership for an Award for Innovation in Higher Education in California. The Long Beach College Promise is an innovative strategy that unites education, community, and business institutions to improve rates of college readiness, admission, transfer and graduation. LBUSD first joined forces with Long Beach City College (LBCC) and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) in At that time, the Seamless Education partnership was formed to support student success by working more closely together as academic institutions. In 2008, facing low rates of university graduation overall, but especially for low-income students of color, veterans, disabled students, and former foster youth, the Long Beach College Promise was established. This innovative plan is a collective pledge that local students will receive priority placement in the local college and university, together with a host of creative, evidence-based supports to improve student retention, graduation, and college success. For our part, LBUSD has put a number of innovations in place to support the Long Beach College Promise. Our signature effort is the Academic and Career Success Initiative to increase college readiness for local students. Enshrined in our unanimously approved Local Control and Accountability Plan, the initiative provides student/parent education on A-G college entrance requirements and career opportunities beginning in fourth grade using clear, comprehensive goals and milestones. It works to ease postsecondary transition by increasing college readiness skills of 11 th and 12 th graders at early stages to prevent the tedious remediation that historically leads to college dropout. The Academic and Career Success Initiative also facilitates collaboration with LBCC and CSULB for the establishment of criteria for guaranteed college

32 admission, helps students to meet those criteria, identifies diverse college pathways for students, and provides college support to students. Other LBUSD innovations to support the Partnership include: Wall-to-wall small learning communities (SLCs) based on the Linked Learning model; The establishment of a new non-profit Long Beach Collaborative to Advance Linked Learning (LBCALL) to facilitate industry engagement in career themed pathways; Design of a robust professional development program for faculty (supporting culture change, improved learning outcomes and implementation of Linked Learning); and LBUSD alignment with higher education initiatives and career technical education to offer students as many options as possible after they graduate from high school. Rather than working in separate worlds, the Long Beach College Promise has created a united community of public institutions all speaking in one voice and working toward the goal of university graduation for local youth. This is a true team, where each partner supports and celebrates the success of the other, because every Long Beach student who graduates with a BA degree as a result of the Long Beach College Promise increases the strength and success of our community. And that is an innovation we are committed to supporting. Sincerely, Christopher J. Steinhauser Superintendent of Schools

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36 CA r SB650. Postsecondary education: the College Promise Partnership - GovTrack.us E SB650. Postsecondary education: the College Promise Partnership California State Legislature Regular Session. Senate. An act to add and repeal Section of, and to add and repeal Article 1.5 (commencing with Section 48810) of Chapter 5 of Part 27 of Division 4 of Title 2 of, the Education Code, relating to the College Promise Partnership Act. Introduced: Feb 18, 2011 Last Action: Oct 8, 2011 Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 633, Statutes of Official Source State legislative information provided by LegiNation, Inc. and LegiScan, Inc. Some information also from Open States. HISTORY Feb 18, 2011: Introduced. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. To print. Feb 20, 2011: From printer. May be acted upon on or after March 22. Mar 3, 2011: Referred to Com. on ED. Apr 5, 2011: Set for hearing April 13. Apr 6, 2011: From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on ED. Apr 25, 2011: From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 640.) (April 13). Apr 26, 2011: Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. Apr 29, 2011: Set for hearing May 9. May 4, 2011: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. May 6, 2011: Set for hearing May 16. May 10, 2011: From committee with author's amendments. Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. May 17, 2011: From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 0. Page 1014.) (May 16). 4:34:59 PM]

37 CA r SB650. Postsecondary education: the College Promise Partnership - GovTrack.us May 18, 2011: Read second time. Ordered to third reading. Ordered to special consent calendar. May 23, 2011: Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 1066.) Ordered to the Assembly. May 23, 2011: In Assembly. Read first time. Held at Desk. Jun 2, 2011: Referred to Com. on HIGHER ED. Jun 22, 2011: From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on ED. (Ayes 8. Noes 0.) (June 21). Jun 23, 2011: Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on ED. Jul 12, 2011: From committee: Do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (July 6). Jul 13, 2011: Read second time and amended. Re-referred to Com. on APPR. Aug 18, 2011: From committee: Do pass. Ordered to consent calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (August 17). Aug 22, 2011: Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar. Aug 25, 2011: Read third time. Passed. (Ayes 78. Noes 0. Page 2596.) Ordered to the Senate. Aug 25, 2011: In Senate. Concurrence in Assembly amendments pending. Aug 30, 2011: Assembly amendments concurred in. (Ayes 38. Noes 0. Page 2155.) Ordered to engrossing and enrolling. Sep 7, 2011: Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4:30 p.m. Oct 8, 2011: Approved by the Governor. Oct 8, 2011: Chaptered by Secretary of State. Chapter 633, Statutes of SUMMARY SB 650, Lowenthal. Postsecondary education: the College Promise Partnership Act. Existing law establishes the California Community Colleges under the administration of the Board of Governors of the California Community Colleges. Existing law authorizes the establishment of community college districts under the administration of community college governing boards, and authorizes these districts to provide instruction at community college campuses throughout the state. Existing law authorizes the governing board of a school district to authorize pupils, with parental permission, who would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work to attend community college as special part-time or full-time students to undertake one or more courses of instruction at the community college level. Existing law authorizes the parent or guardian of a pupil to petition the governing board of a school district to authorize the attendance of the pupil at a community college as a special part-time or full-time student on the ground that the pupil would benefit from advanced scholastic or vocational work. Existing law further authorizes the governing board of a community college district to admit those students to any community college under its jurisdiction and to include those students in the districts report of full-time equivalent students if they are enrolled in community college classes that are open to the general public. This bill would enact the College Promise Partnership Act, and authorize the Long Beach Community College District and the Long Beach Unified School District to enter into a partnership, as specified, to provide participating pupils with an aligned sequence of rigorous high school and college coursework leading to capstone college courses, as 4:34:59 PM]

38 CA r SB650. Postsecondary education: the College Promise Partnership - GovTrack.us defined, with consistent and jointly established eligibility for college courses. The bill would authorize the Long Beach Community College District to admit to any community college under its jurisdiction, as a special part-time or full-time student, a student participating in the partnership and to assign priority for enrollment and course registration to specified students. The bill would also authorize the district to include high school students, who attend a community college within the district and participate in the partnership, for the purpose of receiving state apportionments on the same basis as other community college districts. The bill would require the Long Beach Community College District to report to the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges the moneys utilized for the partnership by no later than November 1 of each year the partnership is in operation. This bill would require the Long Beach Community College District, if it decides to enter into a partnership, to provide for an independent evaluation of the partnership, as specified, funded with resources provided by the participating entities. The evaluation would be required, at a minimum, to provide recommendations for the improvement of, and issues related to, the establishment of admittance, enrollment, and course registration priority provided to pupils participating in the partnership, and on whether the partnership has met specified objectives. The evaluation would be required to be submitted to the Legislature by December 30, 2016, and the evaluation process requirement would be repealed on January 1, The other provisions of this bill would become inoperative on June 30, 2017, and, as of January 1, 2018, would be repealed, unless a later enacted statute that is enacted before January 1, 2018, deletes or extends that date. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Long Beach Unified School District and the Long Beach Community College District. 4:34:59 PM]

39 Governor Brown Signs Long Beach College Promise Act Governor Brown Signs Long Beach College Promise Act by STAFF REPORTS on OCTOBER :58 in NEWS Comment 0 3:00pm Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 650, the Long Beach College Promise Act, authored by State Senator Alan Lowenthal. The legislation was sponsored by both Long Beach City College and the Long Beach Unified School District to support the Long Beach College Promise: a seamless education program designed to increase college success for students in Greater Long Beach. Eloy Ortiz Oakley, President of Long Beach City College and Christopher J. Steinhauser, Superintendent of 4:24:10 PM]

40 Governor Brown Signs Long Beach College Promise Act Schools for the Long Beach Unified School District released a joint statement today calling the signing of SB 650 a "historic moment" for both. The passing of the Long Beach College Promise Act is a historic moment for Long Beach City College and the Long Beach Unified School District, said Ortiz Oakley. This bill will give our institutions more flexibility to ensure that our students are adequately prepared to enter higher education institutions and to transfer in a timely fashion. We are extremely thankful to Senator Alan Lowenthal for his leadership. We commend Gov. Brown for signing this important legislation, said Steinhauser. SB 650 will allow our schools to further implement the Long Beach College Promise, a nationally recognized collaboration with our community college and state university. Together we re preparing more students for success in higher education and in the workplace. SB 650 establishes an innovative model that provides participating LBUSD students with an aligned sequence of rigorous high school coursework leading to capstone college courses while students are still in high school. These capstone courses count for LBCC course credit. The bill also gives the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees the authority to create a specialized LBUSD cohort of students and assign them priority enrollment and course registration. The goals of the College Promise Act include: - Increasing the percentage of school district students who attend college directly from high school; - Increasing the percentage of school district students who are determined, by assessment or other means, to be prepared for college-level English and mathematics by the commencement of their first regular semester at the college; - Increasing the number of students who successfully complete college-level English and mathematics in their first year; and, - Increasing the number of school district students who earn a degree or certificate at the college, or successfully transfer to a four-year university, within four years of graduating from high school. The Long Beach College Promise will allow the public education institutions in Long Beach, which have a proven track record of success in improving outcomes for all students, to move their partnership to a new level and to help create a model through which California can begin to increase college completions at a scale and pace to meet President Obama's 2020 completion goals, Learn more about the Long Beach College Promise at 4:24:10 PM]

41 Executive Committee (Chris Steinhauser, Eloy Ortiz Oakley, F. King Alexander) Leadership Council (Co-Chairs: Chris Dominguez, Greg Peterson, Jean Houck) Additional LBUSD, LBCC, & CSULB Members College Promise Initiatives (as needed) (as needed) Project Team Project Team Project Team Project Team Project Team Preparation for College Success Expanding Pathways Counseling Initiative Post-Secondary Success Project Team Project Team Project Team Project Team Project Team Promise Pathways Coordinating Team PCS Co-Chair + Rep, EP Co-Chair + Rep, CI Co-Chair + Rep, PSS Co-Chair + Rep, Comm Chair + Rep, Pdev Chair + Rep, Data Chair + Rep, Tech/Ops Chair + Rep, Student Success Committee Co-Chair Student Success Committee Shared Governance (Director, CGR) (VP, Academic Affairs) (VP, Econ Res Dev) (VP, Student Affairs) Communication CRM, IITS Professional Development HR, Faculty Pdev Data/ Resources IE, ERD, IITS Technical Operations A&R, IITS, AS 1

42 Promise Pathways Coordinating Team PCS Co-Chair + Rep, EP Co-Chair + Rep, CI Co-Chair + Rep, PSS Co-Chair + Rep, Comm Chair + Rep, Pdev Chair + Rep, Data Chair + Rep, Tech/Ops Chair + Rep *Possible Sample Activities by Student Support Level Student Support Accelerated Support Proficient Support Strategic Support Intensive Support *Preparation *Transition *Completion Student Success Course(s) Student Success Course(s) Student Success Course(s) Summer Bridge Program Student Success Course(s) Early Algebra Interventions AP/IB/SAT/ACT Scores College Credit for English/Math Placement into College-Level English & Math Placement into College-Level English & Math/1 Level Below Intensive Developmental Sequence Intervention Student Success Series Student Success Series Student Success Series Student Success Series 2

43 MEMBERS P 2 TASKS CHARGE Preparation for College Success Create a college going culture that includes career awareness and prepares students for the academic rigor of college by: a) Reducing the need for remediation in college through the use of shared entrance placement exams (EAP); b) Articulation of standards for college readiness; c) Alignment of K12 higher education interventions; d) Using institutional data to guide the processes. Counseling Initiative Build effective advisement structures at all three institutions that diagnose students needs early, and direct them to effective interventions. Work across segments to build common knowledge of advisement opportunities for students. At LBCC, academic advisement can be enhanced to focus on matriculation to university, and career counseling to focus on successful completion of certification programs. Expanding Pathways Build and strengthen career and technical pathways Align coherency and sequencing of courses in K-12. Infuse relevant career and technical awareness into smaller learning communities and develop career pathways to post-secondary experiences. Define how to build career awareness from elementary level through, community college, and university. Post-Secondary Success Increase admissions, transfer, retention, and graduation rates at LBCC and CSULB by identifying barriers for student success, develop and provide appropriate interventions at each institution, and strategically link academic majors to career opportunities. This initiative connects the activities of the LBUSD Academic & Career Success Initiative to the LBCC Student Success Initiative. -Align Coursework (Core) -Implement Diagnostic/Module-Based Placement -Expand Easy Matriculation Model -Communicate College Transition Process -Expand Easy Matriculation Model -Align Coursework (Career/Technical) -Develop Seamless Program Pathways -Provide Structured 1 st Semester Experience -Develop Seamless Program Pathways -Provide Ongoing, Integrated Support Services LBCC Representation Needed: 1. Matriculation 2. English 3. Math 4. Reading 5. ESL 6. Instructional Dean 7. Student Services Dean 8. Honors Representative LBCC Representation Needed: 1. Counseling 2. Counseling 3. Transfer Center 4. Instructional Dean 5. Student Services Dean 6. Financial Aid Representative 7. Instructional Faculty 8. Scholarships Representative LBCC Representation Needed: 1. Career Tech Ed 2. Small LC Area Rep 3. Small LC Area Rep 4. PCC Student Success Center 5. Instructional Dean 6. Resource Development 7. Counseling/Career Center LBCC Representation Needed: 1. Student Success Committee Co- Chair 2. Transfer Center 3. LAR 4. Counseling 5. Business & Social Science 6. Health & Sciences (non-math) 7. Creative Arts & Applied Sciences 8. Honors Representative 9. Academic Services Representative 10. Instructional Dean 11. Student Services Representative 3

44 A NEW PLAN FOR A NEW ECONOMY: REIMAGINING HIGHER EDUCATION LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION October 2013

45 Little Hoover Commission Jonathan Shapiro* Chairman David A. Schwarz Vice Chairman Katcho Achadjian Assemblymember Virginia Ellis Bill Emmerson Senator Jack Flanigan Loren Kaye Pedro Nava Tom Quinn Anthony Rendon Assemblymember Richard Roth Senator Sumi Sousa *Served on study subcommittee Served as subcommittee chair Former Commissioners Who Served During the Study Daniel W. Hancock Mark Vargas* To Promote Economy and Efficiency The Little Hoover Commission, formally known as the Milton Marks Little Hoover Commission on California State Government Organization and Economy, is an independent state oversight agency. By statute, the Commission is a bipartisan board composed of five public members appointed by the governor, four public members appointed by the Legislature, two senators and two assemblymembers. In creating the Commission in 1962, the Legislature declared its purpose:...to secure assistance for the Governor and itself in promoting economy, effi ciency and improved services in the transaction of the public business in the various departments, agencies and instrumentalities of the executive branch of the state government, and in making the operation of all state departments, agencies and instrumentalities, and all expenditures of public funds, more directly responsive to the wishes of the people as expressed by their elected representatives... The Commission fulfills this charge by listening to the public, consulting with the experts and conferring with the wise. In the course of its investigations, the Commission typically empanels advisory committees, conducts public hearings and visits government operations in action. Its conclusions are submitted to the Governor and the Legislature for their consideration. Recommendations often take the form of legislation, which the Commission supports through the legislative process. Commission Staff Stuart Drown Executive Director Carole D'Elia Deputy Executive Director Krystal Beckham Research Analyst Contacting the Commission and Copies of Reports All correspondence should be addressed to the Commission at: 925 L St., Suite 805, Sacramento, CA littlehoover@lhc.ca.gov Telephone: (916) Fax: (916) Worldwide Web: This report is available from the Commission s website.

46 State of California LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION The Honorable Edmund G. Brown Jr. Governor of California October 14, 2013 The Honorable Darrell Steinberg President pro Tempore of the Senate and members of the Senate The Honorable John A. Pérez Speaker of the Assembly and members of the Assembly The Honorable Robert Huff Senate Minority Leader The Honorable Connie Conway Assembly Minority Leader Dear Governor and Members of the Legislature: California needs a new Master Plan for Higher Education that will map out how the state will increase the number of college graduates, one that implements the goals set by California s leaders through a public discussion. By 2025, California will need 2.3 million more graduates who have earned a certificate or degree than it is on track to produce today. At least a million of those graduates need to have baccalaureate degrees. To reach that goal, California s public and private colleges will need to produce 40 percent more graduates each year than they do today. Although the state has started to add more money back into the system, it cannot possibly increase funding enough to allow our higher education institutions, as they currently are run, to accommodate the number of additional college students needed to meet California s needs. The choice is simple: Either fail to educate enough students, or find a better and more efficient way to run our public colleges and universities. California s leaders must start the discussion about how to change the system to meet the state s current and future civic and workforce needs with the finite financial resources it has. This will require shifting the discussion from what it costs an institution to educate each student each year to what it costs to produce a degree. California must be able to answer whether is it getting what it needs for what it is spending on higher education. Designing a new approach is particularly difficult because of the lack of data showing how the institutions now operate. The University of California, for example, seems unable to answer basic questions involving teaching loads and sabbatical policies. And all three segments of our higher education system community colleges, the California State University and the University of California have so far failed to lead in the promising area of online education. There have been some recent improvements, particularly in the CSU system, but other universities, including Stanford, Harvard and MIT, have more aggressively experimented with online options. It seems as though our state, once the innovator, has become a reluctant follower. While online won t by itself be a panacea, it almost certainly must be part of the mix as our state and nation struggle to prepare more and more young people for the jobs of the future. Governor Brown, you have committed to higher spending levels in future years. In exchange, the California State University and University of California systems agreed to share more information about student success, freeze tuition and devote some of the increased funding to

47 developing more online education. In addition, you have signed into law a proposal from Speaker of the Assembly John Pérez that will help middle class families struggling to pay sharply higher tuitions. These are important steps, but they must be part of a larger plan. California once relied on a Master Plan for Higher Education. Written more than 50 years ago, it envisioned the state s needs through The Master Plan served the state well for many years, and provided a template adopted by countries around the world. But the California it served no longer exists. In this study, the Little Hoover Commission lays out its case for a new Master Plan and goals it recommends should be included. The overriding goal must be to increase the number of Californians with degrees, certificates and diplomas who can meet the state s future needs. This will not be possible without preserving the original Master Plan s values of quality, affordability and accessibility. A key strategy to that end is helping students already enrolled to complete their work and move on, opening up a seat for the next person. The potential for increasing completion rates is greatest at our community colleges and state universities, which together account for more than 85 percent of California students enrolled in public higher education. In drafting the new Master Plan, California should draw from students, alumni, civic organizations, local governments and business and economic development groups, as well as from the higher education institutions themselves. Where the original Master Plan focused on setting institutional responsibilities and boundaries, the new Master Plan must be written from the perspective of what best serves students and the needs of the state as a whole. Sincerely, Jonathan Shapiro Chairman

48 THE LONG BEACH EXPERIENCE Building Better Links: The Long Beach Experience The Commission explored the question of how to better link higher education to secondary education to increase awareness, student preparation and greater access. In its study of community college governance, the Commission was troubled by the high proportion of students who were unprepared for college-level work. While some students required only brush up courses in some subjects and could engage in college-level courses in others, many more students arrived years behind. In this study, the Commission learned that a shrinking portion of high school graduates was applying to California public higher education institutions, some for fear they could not get in, or for fear that higher tuition and fees would make college unaffordable, despite CSU s and UC s efforts to boost student aid. The Commission also learned of outreach programs that introduced middle school students and high school students to the idea of planning for college, and financial aid outreach that explained to teachers and students and their families about the many options still available even in an era of strained resources. In its 2012 study on community colleges, the Commission saw examples of how regional cooperation and coordination across community college districts could increase efficiencies for campuses and districts as well as expand opportunities for students. In addition to formal consortiums organized around economic regions, a number of colleges also were engaged in voluntary regional partnerships, mostly formed with a focus on improving student participation and completion rates. Among them were the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium and the San Diego and Imperial Counties Community College Association. 44 In this study, the Commission looked at an example of vertical cooperation among educators at the high school, community college and state university in the city of Long Beach. Regional partnerships such as the Long Beach College Promise not only get high school students to think of themselves as college-bound, but to prepare themselves so they are in a better position to succeed once they are there. Michele Siqueiros, executive director for the Campaign for College Opportunity and a member of the California Student Aid Commission, said such efforts can and should start even earlier, with outreach to students and parents at the middle school level. 35

49 LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION The Long Beach College Promise The Long Beach College Promise program launched in 2008, though its roots stretch back nearly 20 years if not several decades. Faced with a quickly eroding local economy as defense spending shrank, Long Beach community leaders, at the urging of the city s mayor, formed the Long Beach Economic Partnership in The group s subsequent report, A Call to Action, focused principally on improving business, but it underlined the importance of education as a pre-requisite to economic growth, and called on the Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City College and California State University, Long Beach, to work together for the good of the community. The three institutions formed the Long Beach Education Partnership in The partnership s initial work focused on improving communication between K-12 and higher education, and on other projects such as developing district standards for teaching history. Later renamed the Seamless Education Partnership, the group shifted its attention to better preparing high school students for college and aligning curriculum and standards across the institutions. In March 2008, the leaders of Long Beach Unified, Long Beach City College and CSU Long Beach Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser and Presidents Eloy Ortiz Oakley and F. King Alexander announced the creation of the Long Beach College Promise. 46 Creating a Pathway to Higher Education At its core, the College Promise essentially guarantees students from the Long Beach Unified School District the opportunity to pursue a college education. But the program s public face early outreach to gradeschool students, daylong trips to college campuses, partnerships with the business community, principal-for-the-day activities is just the start. The three institutions actively partner in efforts to reshape English and math readiness for Long Beach Unified s 84,816 students; provide professional development for district teachers; and improve the teacher preparation program at CSU Long Beach s College of Education. 47 We have so much going on in terms of collaboration and working on programs together, that even I m not always aware of all that we re up to, said Eloy Ortiz Oakley, president of Long Beach City College. 48 A Long Beach Unified document outlining the relationship shows the three partners working together on more than 20 initiatives. 49 The College Promise public outreach efforts begin with Long Beach Unified s elementary school students. Every year, all of the district s fourth-graders take a field trip to Long Beach City College, where they meet with students, teachers and administrators, including the president. They tour CSU Long Beach in the fifth grade. We try to 36

50 THE LONG BEACH EXPERIENCE make them feel that they re comfortable on our campus, said F. King Alexander, the university s former president. We want them to go back thinking, I d like to do that. 50 In middle school, students sign a pledge to seek a college education. Those involved with College Promise make clear that pledging to attend college does not necessarily mean that every student will head down a four- or five-year path to a bachelor s degree. They say that nearly all students will need some type of postsecondary education, and degree attainment refers to certificates and associate of arts degrees as well. Everyone needs to be able to function at a high level. Welders, mechanics and other workers they have to read very detailed manuals; they need a high level of math and reading skills, said Christopher J. Steinhauser, Long Beach Unified superintendent. We prepare you for the world of college and career. 51 The promise part of the program is this: All Long Beach Unified high school students who successfully complete California State University s required college preparatory classes so-called A through G courses in history, English, math and science, among others or meet the minimum CSU- City College transfer requirements will be guaranteed admission to CSU Long Beach. We will hold a spot for them no matter how many applications we get, then-president Alexander told the Commission. The university received 78,000 applications for admission in Of the 4,282 freshmen enrolled for fall 2012, 743 (17.4 percent) were from Long Beach Unified. 53 Beginning in 2011, the Long Beach City College Foundation began paying the first semester fees for all Long Beach Unified Long Beach Promise Outcomes 200 percent increase in Long Beach Unified School District graduates completing college-level math at Long Beach City College. 500 percent increase in Long Beach Unified School District graduates completing college-level English at Long Beach City College. 4,000 free semesters of college at Long Beach City Unified percent increase in Long Beach Unified School District applications to CSU Long Beach between 2008 and percent increase in Long Beach Unified School District admissions at CSU Long Beach between 2008 and percent increase in Long Beach Unified School District enrollments at CSU Long Beach between 2008 and $6.5 million raised by Long Beach City College Foundation to cover first semester enrollment fees for local high school graduates. Source: Long Beach College Promise. Long Beach College Promise 5-Year Progress Report ( ). Accessed July 29,

51 LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION high school graduates who enroll at Long Beach City College in the fall immediately following their graduation. Enrollment fees are $46 a unit. The foundation raised $6.5 million and established an endowment to cover the costs. 54 1,540 new Long Beach Unified graduates attended Long Beach City College in fall The well-planned marketing effort, which includes a website (longbeachcollegepromise.org) and a How to Get to College guide printed in six languages, is a central piece of the College Promise initiative. But the real foundation of the program is the active and in some ways unique professional collaboration among the three education institutions. A Seamless Education leadership council of 25 executive staff, faculty and administrators from each institution meets monthly, sometimes weekly, to set priorities and review initiatives, and faculty from the math and education departments regularly analyze and exchange data on Long Beach Unified graduates. Among important areas the three have worked closely on: Teacher preparation and training: Long Beach Unified hires about 75 percent of its teachers from CSU Long Beach, but Superintendent Steinhauser says district officials weren t always satisfied that College of Education graduates were meeting their needs. 56 Under the Seamless Education Partnership, the two institutions launched an effort to reform teacher training, with K-12 teachers meeting with CSU Long Beach faculty and students to explain what it is really like in the classroom. 57 The discussions led to the College of Education using experienced K- 12 administrators and teachers to lead a number of its teachertraining classes, as well as advise on the curriculum. 58 Teacher retraining: Funding cuts forced Long Beach Unified to lay off elementary school teachers. At the same time, the school district still lacked enough skilled teachers in math, science and special education. Working together, Long Beach Unified and CSU Long Beach obtained $2 million in grants from three foundations to retrain many of the out-of-work teachers in science, math and special education. The money enabled experienced teachers, already credentialed in multiple subjects, to obtain single-subject credentials at no cost. 59 The two institutions now are working on an intensive training program to enhance math and science knowledge among elementary school teachers. 60 Sharing data: The institutions are heavy users of student data, including test scores and class grades, and exchange it monthly 38

52 THE LONG BEACH EXPERIENCE throughout the year. Essentially, the data is used to show how Long Beach Unified students are performing once they start attending classes at Long Beach City College and CSU Long Beach. The information, which can track students to the high school they attended, the specific classes they were in and the teachers who taught them, enables the school district to, in Superintendent Steinhauser s words, redeploy resources to fix the problem. The sharing of data, for example, has led to changes in some Long Beach Unified English and math courses, and has helped significantly reduce the number of students needing English and math remediation in college. 61 Tracking student outcomes is the driving force behind much of the work the institutions do to improve college readiness and create smoother pathways from high school to higher education. California needs to do this on a state-wide basis, underscoring the need for a central organization that can collect and analyze data from all of the state s public higher education institutions. Early Assessment Program: In conjunction with the state Board of Education and the Department of Education, the California State University system created the Early Assessment Program EAP in 2006 to measure whether potential students were prepared for college. The program gives high school juniors the option of taking tests to determine their readiness for college-level English and math, and then gives them a chance to improve their skills in their senior year. With more than 60 percent of the roughly 40,000 freshmen admitted to CSU each year required to take at least one remedial course, the aim is to save money and time by identifying those who need help before they set foot on campus. In 2010, about 84 percent of eligible juniors around the state opted to take the EAP English test, with about 77 percent taking the math portion. 62 In Long Beach, the test is mandatory, not optional. In 2009, 91 percent of Long Beach Unified high school juniors took the math test while 96 percent took the English test. 63 The early results have been impressive. Long Beach Unified School District freshman admissions to CSU Long Beach increased by 43 percent between 2008 and 2012, despite the university having to decrease overall admissions by 2,000 students in the and school years due to budget cuts. 64 The results of the Promise Pathways initiative, in which participating students are placed into English and math courses based on their high school grades rather than standardized assessment courses, show a 500 percent increase in completion of college-level English and a 200 percent increase in completion of college-level math. Some of the largest relative gains were 39

53 LITTLE HOOVER COMMISSION made by Latino and African American students. 65 More than 4,000 Long Beach Unified students have received free semesters at Long Beach City College, and freshmen from Long Beach Unified and transfers from Long Beach City College have higher persistence rates at CSU Long Beach than non-promise students. 66 Can Long Beach Serve as a Model for California? The Long Beach College Promise program has flourished without any direct help from the state. The program gets no specific state funding, and the sole staffer devoted to its general operation the executive director, who also serves as the head of the Long Beach Education Foundation is funded in part from the $20,000 each institution contributes from its operating budget. The Seamless Education Partnership over the years has established important financial ties with a number of national, state and local businesses and nonprofit organizations, including the Education Trust, Business Higher Education Forum, Verizon Foundation, Boeing Foundation, James Irvine Foundation and the Business/Education Roundtable. Long Beach leaders strongly believe the program can ably succeed beyond their city s borders. They are quick to cite the dozens of factfinding pilgrimages that others have made to their offices from other California school districts, other states and countries as far away as Israel as proof that many other education and civic leaders believe it too. The plan has been presented to President Obama s White House Domestic Policy Council. Their first point is that Long Beach isn t much different or any more homogeneous than any other place, in California or around the country. They acknowledge the natural link created by having all three education segments geographically close to each other, but say the same can be said of any number of regions up and down the state Fresno, San Bernardino and Sacramento, for example. And Long Beach Unified has just as diverse a student body as anywhere else, with 70 percent of its students more than 59,000 on free or reduced price meal programs. 67 With nearly 85,000 students, Long Beach Unified is the third largest school district in the state. We actually have more students in the district than Austin (Texas), Cincinnati and Detroit, then-long Beach State President Alexander said. I remind people we re bigger than Boston. They can t out-problem us. 68 Their second point is that state policymakers can trigger the spread of programs like the Long Beach College Promise by setting goals and holding educators accountable. In 2011, Governor Brown signed into 40

54 THE LONG BEACH EXPERIENCE law SB 650 (Lowenthal) permitting the Long Beach Community College District to give College Promise students priority when enrolling and registering for classes. Besides providing institutions flexibility to work together, the law also required the partnership to evaluate whether the change has led to increases in, among other things, the number of students who earn a degree or certificate or who transfer to a four-year university. That s where the state should get involved, Superintendent Steinhauser said. The bill should be for everyone in California, not just Long Beach. What really has to happen is you need to hold people accountable. We need to hold K-12 accountable for how many kids are going to college and higher education accountable to how you re working with K For his part, President Oakley called for a clear commitment from the state of California expressing expectations. 70 Other CSU campuses, notably in San Francisco and San Diego, have formed cooperative ventures, though they don t share the same intensive use of data collection or have a brand as strong as College Promise. But they could, and creating a set of standard components for similar regional cooperative agreements in exchange for the right to use the brand might be one approach. Recommendation 4: To encourage enrollment in higher education, improve higher education completion and reduce costs of remedial courses, the Legislature should provide incentives for districts and colleges to collaborate and expand counseling and outreach to middle schools and high schools in areas that have both state college campuses and community college districts. 41

55 State Senate takes field trip to Long Beach - Los Angeles Times State Senate takes field trip to Long Beach March 05, 2013 By Patrick McGreevy The state Senate is taking a rare field trip, heading to Long Beach on Tuesday to learn how career technical education programs are working in some model schools. Most of the 40 senators are expected at the bipartisan California State Senate Policy Conference on Education, which includes tours of career academy classrooms to review how academics and technical training are being merged. "We know that one of the best ways to improve outcomes for our students and to close achievement gaps is to align rigorous academics to the world of work and careers," said Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento). He said the Long Beach Unified School District is on the "cutting edge of linked learning in California," and is one of the top performing districts in the country. "This fact-finding conference is a great opportunity for a firsthand look at what s working for our students in elementary, secondary and higher education, and to ask questions and learn from those who are achieving success," Steinberg said. The two-day policy conference includes meetings at Cabrillo High School and Long Beach City College. file:///c:/...y.zip/attachments/state%20senate%20takes%20field%20trip%20to%20long%20beach%20-%20los%20angeles%20times.html[1/8/2015 8:37:36 AM]

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57 CSULB E-Advising Initiative In 2013, CSULB launched a very ambitious e-advising initiative to better serve students by empowering them to create academic plans and semester schedules that better allow them to graduate in four years. The initiative includes four electronic tools. The Class Schedule Planner allows students to build their course schedules around their standing obligations, such as family and work responsibilities or athletic and student organization activities. Advisor Connect allows students to easily schedule appointments with their academic advisors. The Degree Planner enables students to identify the optimal four-year plan to graduation and in real-time demonstrates the affect that their course selections will have on their planned graduation date. Our fourth tool, the Education Advisory Board s Student Success Collaborative, helps advisors identify students who are not making the progress needed for a timely graduation and intervene early to help get these students on the right track. These tools are all designed to help students achieve success and stay on track for a timely graduation. Detailed information about the tools and our implementation plans may be found on the Enrollment Service E-Advising Initiative website:

58 Get Involved! SHARE EXPERIENCES/RESOURCES Provide workplace tours Be a guest speaker in a classroom Job shadow opportunities for teachers/students Mentor a student Tutor a student Provide mock interview opportunities Support resume development Create teacher externships Share financial resources ATTEND EVENTS Career Fair Events Student Trade Fairs Student Academic Competitions LONG BEACH CALL Connecting Students, the Community and the Workplace LONG BEACH COLLABORATIVE TO ADVANCE LINKED LEARNING LONG BEACH CALL COLLABORATE TO CREATE Industry supported projects/research Projects with multiple interactions with mentor Student run enterprise with partner involvement Work experience/internship opportunities Clinical experience On the job training 1000 N. Studebaker Road Suite 3 Long Beach, California Better postsecondary outcomes for students, resulting in a more qualified workforce, and stronger community in Long Beach. bhinga@longbeachcall.org

59 Strategic Vision The Long Beach CALL aims to: 1. SUPPORT WORKFORCE PREPARATION Meet current and future demands of the global economy by preparing high quality employees for Long Beach employers. Projects WORK-FORCE DEVELOPMENT Collaboration between nonprofit organizations and industry experts to develop career pathways to meet the needs of local industry and provide employment with living wages to Long Beach residents. WORK-BASED LEARNING ENHANCEMENT Building mutually beneficial relationships between Long Beach students and educators across the K-16 pipeline and local businesses. 2. INNOVATE EDUCATION Advance rigorous and relevant multidisciplinary curriculum, including technical and work based learning opportunities. 3. PROMOTE COLLEGE CULTURE & ACCESS Foster college awareness and enrichment through sustained partnerships with local colleges and exposure to postsecondary options. 4. CULTIVATE COLLABORATION Structure ongoing communication between local businesses, community organizations, families, schools and colleges to coordinate resources and monitor progress toward common goals. Purpose The Long Beach CALL fosters community collaboration for success in college, career, and civic engagement. Overview The Long Beach CALL facilitates: Access to education and skills training for growing and emerging careers. Partnerships between community organizations and the future local workforce to meet the needs of the 21st Century marketplace. A structure and process for community members, businesses, and schools to convene and collaborate toward common goals of community building and civic engagement. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Reaching out to the Long Beach community for input and participation through all levels of this work. BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS Convening of local businesses to work toward shared goals of work-force and community development. Long Beach CALL Connecting Students, the Community, and the Workplace

60 List of Advanced Transfer Degrees & Certificate List Architectural Drafting Electrical Technology Engineering Creative Writing Fire Science Horticulture Mathematics Mechanical Maintenance Technology Medical Assisting Combined Metal Fabrication Technology Nursing Associate Degree (RN) Program Nursing: LVN to RN Nursing: Vocational/Practical Physical Sciences Tool Designer

61 OFFICE OF ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, SECONDARY SCHOOLS 1515 Hughes Way, Long Beach, California (562) FAX (562) Linked Learning and Pathways at a Glance Work-Based Learning In Context Work-based learning activities fall along a continuum of experiences for students and exhibit increasing levels of intensity over time. The continuum often begins with career speakers and tours appropriate for students as early as the elementary years, followed by job shadowing, which can begin in middle school and the early high school years. It then progresses to internships, service learning, or various kinds of school-based enterprises in high school all of which lead to further education and career preparation activities, such as apprenticeships, college enrollment, and employment beyond high school. ~ The James Irvine Foundation What is Linked-Learning? Linked Learning transforms the high school experience by bringing together strong academics, demanding technical education, and real-world experience to help students gain an advantage in high school, postsecondary education, and careers. In the Linked Learning approach, students follow industry-themed pathways in a wide range of fields such as engineering, arts and media, biomedicine and health. The term pathway is a common term in education and in the Linked Learning context is defined as: A multiyear, comprehensive high school program of integrated academic and career technical study that is organized around a broad theme, interest area, or industry sector. Pathways connect learning with students interests and career aspirations, preparing them for the full range of post-graduation options including two and four-year colleges and universities, apprenticeships, formal employment training, and military service. Core Components of Linked Learning: A challenging academic component that prepares students for success in community colleges universities, as well as in apprenticeships and other post-secondary programs. A technical component that delivers concrete knowledge and skills through technical courses while emphasizing the practical application of academic learning and preparing students fro high-skill, high-wage employment. A work-based learning component that offers opportunities to learn through real-world experiences. Students gain access to intensive internships, virtual apprenticeships, and school-based enterprises. Support services that include counseling and supplemental instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics that help students master the advanced academic and technical content necessary for success in college and career.

62 What are the new CTE Standards? Sweeping updates to California s Career Technical Education (CTE) standards - designed to reflect the changing face of technology and set higher academic goals-received approval from the State Board of Education on Wednesday, January 16, Building on the previous CET standards, the revised standards were created with input from more than 300 representatives from business and industry, labor, and postsecondary and secondary education, ranging from the U.S Department of Homeland Security to mental health experts and environmental innovators. The new standards reflect current business and industry practices as well as the new expectations for skills, and knowledge. The California Career Technical Education (CCTE) Model Curriculum Standards are organized in 15 industry sectors, or groupings, of interrelated occupations and broad industries. What Does a Career Pathway Look Like? A Career Pathway integrates rigorous academic instruction with a demanding technical curriculum and field-based learning- all set in the context of one of California s 15 major industry sectors, such as business and finance, building and environmental design, biomedical and health sciences, engineering, information technology, manufacturing, or arts, media, and entertainment. Integrating technical and academic content allows students (and teachers) to explore connections in depth-and ultimately deepens students understanding and makes learning more exciting and relevant. The Linked Learning approach provides for a demanding technical component that delivers concrete knowledge and skills with an emphasis on real-world applications, bringing student academic and technical learning to life. The focus is on preparing youth for high-skill, high-wage employment through courses in cutting-edge areas of student such as biotechnology, nursing, engineering, green building and design, and animation to name a few. Students in pathways are expected to take a three or four-year sequence that begins with a foundation course in 9 th and 10 th grade, and adds increasingly advanced and challenging content in upper-level courses as they progress through high school. This technical core often culminates in a capstone senior project that demonstrates mastery in their chosen area of student, an in some cases, leads to certification for students. In addition, all technical courses must align with state content standards, and must stay current with the latest developments in the industry. In addition to the core academic and technical components of a pathway, students also benefit from a comprehensive and effective work-based learning experience that is connected to what they learn in the classroom. This exposure helps sharpen students desire to increase knowledge and develop skills that are relevant to their career interests. These work-based learning opportunities can take the form of job shadowing, intensive internships, virtual apprenticeships, and school-based enterprises.

63 Promising Pathways - Placement, Performance, and Progress in Basic Skills and Transfer Level Courses in English and Mathematics The RP Group Promising Pathways - Placement, Performance, and Progress in Basic Skills and Transfer Level Courses in English and Mathematics Apr 2, 2012 John Hetts, Andrew Fuenmayor, and Karen Rothstein, Long Beach City College This study won the 2012 RP Group Excellence in College Research Award. As part of a 15-year partnership with LBUSD, Long Beach City College sought to improve success of LBUSD students in Math and English courses at LBCC, by examining the extent to which these courses are currently aligned. Using a dataset, generated by Cal- PASS, of five first-time student cohorts ( to ) linked with high school performance data, we examined the predictors of placement and performance at LBCC. In both subjects, placement was strongly predicted by the California Standards Tests but weakly by high school grades. Conversely, success at LBCC was strongly predicted by high school grades but minimally by the CSTs. These results suggested a compelling opportunity to pilot alternative assessment and placement methods which, when implemented, should significantly increase successful completions of college-level Math and English. 5:37:25 PM]

64 The cost of taking unneeded college classes is high. Each unit at LBCC costs $276, with students paying approximately $46 and the State of California picking up the remaining $230 per unit. The Long Beach College Promise has significantly reduced that cost using predictive analytics to bypass unneeded remediation. During the first three years of Promise Pathways, three cohorts of Long Beach students saved a total of 10,842 units in unneeded remediation. This represents direct savings of $498,732 for students, $2,493,660 for the State, and a total savings of $2,992,392. Direct Cost Savings During Three Years of Promise Pathways Cost Per Unit: Cost Per Unit: Remediation Units Savings Savings Total State Student Bypassed Students State Savings $230 $46 10,842 $498,732 $2,493,660 $2,992,392 By ending the misplacement of students in remediation and accelerating students into transfer courses, the LBCP achieved additional indirect savings of at least $75 million dollars by reducing time to degree completion. Semesters to Degree Saved InDirect Cost Savings During Three Years of Promise Pathways Years to Degree Saved Full Year Equivalent Annual Cost (BLS 2012 median salary - AA/AS degree) Savings 10,371 5,185 2,593 $57,590 $74,488,936

65 A Breakthrough in Student Achievement The Long Beach College Promise strives to improve three key experiences for students: 1 College Preparation 2 College Access 3 College Success While the College Promise has produced encouraging results in these three areas since the program s inception five years ago, the latest student achievement data reveal a true breakthrough. The rate of student progress has increased much more dramatically in the last year. For example, the number of Long Beach Unified School District graduates completing college-level (non-remedial) English at Long Beach City College increased by 500 percent over the previous year. The number of LBUSD students completing college-level math (again, non-remedial) at LBCC jumped by 200 percent over the same period. The College Promise also has aimed to improve college access by providing key incentives and services, including tuition-free semesters for 4,000 students at LBCC, guaranteed admission at California State University, Long Beach for local students who qualify, and college preparation and guidance as early as elementary school to help children understand that higher education is a dream within reach. The results of the College Promise have the potential to help transform California s public colleges and universities, which are seeking ways to trim spending on costly remediation courses while increasing student retention and graduation rates. Such success does not happen by accident. It is the result of LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB working together, sharing data and expertise, and genuinely changing the way business is conducted. The collaborative work of these three institutions has been recognized statewide and nationally many times. But now more than ever, the College Promise serves as a model for K-12 and higher education reform in California and beyond. 500% increase in transfer-english success 200% increase in transfer-math success 4,000 FREE semesters of college

66 More LBUSD Graduates Attend CSULB Record numbers of students have applied to enroll at California State University, Long Beach for fall While recent budget cuts have compelled the university to turn away many eligible applicants, CSULB retains its commitment to serving all eligible LBUSD high school graduates. Without this commitment, many area high school graduates would face insurmountable family and financial challenges on their path to obtaining a college degree. At a time when some regional colleges and universities are moving away from guaranteed admissions for local eligible students, CSULB continues to embrace it, and the proof is in the numbers. Since the establishment of the College Promise, the number of applicants, admitted students and enrolled students from the Long Beach Unified School District has grown each and every year. The number of new CSULB freshmen from LBUSD has increased from 519 in fall 2008 to 743 in fall That is an increase of more than 43 percent. Even more notable is that the increase in LBUSD students continued despite the fact CSULB enrolled 2,000 fewer students for two consecutive years ( and ) because of cuts in state support to the CSU system. The university s commitment to local student access also is illustrated in its admissions numbers. In the last admissions cycle, nearly 80 percent of LBUSD applicants gained admission to CSULB compared to just 25 percent of non-local freshmen applicants. In addition, Long Beach City College transfer students gained admission to CSULB at a rate 18 percent higher than applicants from other community colleges. More than half of the freshmen admitted to CSULB from LBUSD eventually enrolled at the university, while more than three-fourths of LBCC students who were admitted to the university eventually enrolled. And, these students are achieving success. While the number and proportion of freshmen from LBUSD has grown, the percentage of those students requiring math and English remediation has decreased substantially due to targeted advising and initiatives such as CSU Early Start. Additionally, since the College Promise was enacted, freshmen from LBUSD and transfers from LBCC have remained enrolled, or persisted, at a higher rate than non-local California students, 43% who are admitted to the university with more rigorous criteria. increase in CSULB enrollment Promise Pathways Brings 5-Fold Increase in English Completion The initiative also results in a 200 percent increase in college math completion. The Promise Pathways is LBCC s signature initiative as part of the College Promise. It has significantly increased the number and percentage of students who have completed key college milestones, including transferlevel English and math. These are true college-level courses, as opposed to remediation classes. The Promise Pathways launched in the fall of 2012 and implemented two key innovations: predictive placement and prescriptive scheduling. Participating LBUSD graduates were placed into English and math courses based on their high school grades, rather than the traditional method which relies heavily upon standardized assessment tests. These students are also required to enroll in these foundational courses beginning in their first semester. 2 I L O N G B E A C H C O L L E G E P R O M I S E

67 The initial group of 1,000 Promise Pathways students showed impressive gains: The number of transfer-level English courses completed by LBUSD graduates increased by 500 percent year-to-year The number of transfer-level math courses completed by LBUSD graduates increased by 200 percent year-to-year Success rates for every demographic group enrolled in Promise Pathways increased. Some of the largest relative gains were made by Latino and African American students. Despite these gains in placement and success, achievement gaps among student demographic groups remain, but the College Promise institutions are committed to closing these gaps. Access to and entry into transfer-level courses increased for all demographic groups without significantly affecting course success rates. LBCC will continue to evaluate and improve the effort and has already begun recruiting for the fall 2013 group. The program will be expanded to include more students in coming years. The graph shows the significant year-to-year gains in the number and rate of successful completions in transferlevel English and math. More than 4,000 Students Received Free Semesters at LBCC LBCC and the LBCC Foundation developed the College Promise Scholarship to provide financial support and an incentive to local high school graduates to enroll immediately in college. The LBCC Foundation has raised more than $6.5 million to cover the cost of first semester enrollment fees for all local high school graduates who enroll into LBCC immediately after graduation. For the last two years, no local high school graduate has paid first semester enrollment fees at the college, and more than 4,000 students have benefitted since the program s inception. 5 - YEAR P R O G R E S S R E P O R T I 3

68 Why It Matters Californians who complete college will earn $1,340,000 more over their lifetimes than their peers with only a high school diploma LBCC Counselor Alicia Andujo meets with an incoming Promise Pathways student to help her enroll in her first semester courses and to explain the new predictive placement model. 4 I L O N G B E A C H C O L L E G E P R O M I S E

69 The economic value of college is indisputable. As investments go, college is the best bet around. For every $1 California invests in higher education, it will receive a net return on investment of $4.50 $12 billion Past graduates of UC and CSU return $12 billion annually to the state Graphs drawn from: California s Economic Payoff by the Campaign for College Opportunity and The Atlantic Monthly, March 2013, p YEAR P R O G R E S S R E P O R T I 5

70 A Model for the State and Nation The College Promise has garnered state and national attention and recognition: LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser, LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley and CSULB President F. King Alexander accepted an invitation to the White House to attend a signing ceremony with President Barack Obama, and to make a presentation on the success of the Long Beach College Promise at a national educational summit in Washington, D.C. The Little Hoover Commission, an independent agency that recommends ways to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of state programs, released a detailed report in 2012 citing the Long Beach College Promise as a successful model, saying more LBUSD graduates are enrolling in postsecondary courses at the city college or state university; they are better prepared than their peers from other school districts, and fewer are dropping out after their first semester. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 650, the 2011 Long Beach College Promise Act, authored by then State Sen. Alan Lowenthal. SB 650 established an innovative model that provides participating LBUSD students with an aligned sequence of rigorous high school coursework leading to capstone, or culminating, college courses while students are still in high school. The College Promise has been described as a national model in a case study by the Washington D.C.-based Business Higher Education Forum. Long Beach s education leaders were present at the White House as President Barack Obama signed an executive order renewing the Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg chats with Cabrillo High School ninth-grader Joshua McMillan during a two-day conference at the West Long Beach school and LBCC. Other Communities Take Notice Many communities in California have used the Long Beach College Promise as a model for partnerships in their own communities, including Fresno Inland Empire Riverside and San Bernardino Counties Los Angeles Sacramento San Francisco 6 I L O N G B E A C H C O L L E G E P R O M I S E

71 Engaging Students, Parents and Teachers College Success Begins in Elementary School All of LBUSD s fourth- and fifth-grade students visit LBCC and CSULB each year to plant an early seed that college is an attainable goal. Since 2009, 26,000 fourth-graders have visited LBCC, and 26,000 fifth-graders have visited CSULB. Despite significant budget reductions, LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB remain committed to providing this important opportunity. LONG BEACH COLLEGE PROMISE 8 th Grade Personal Educational Plan Name: School: Know & Understand Manage your time by using a schedule planner or notebook to track homework, projects and reports. Establish an academic peer group for studying and to contact if assignments or clarification is needed on homework. Know current grades in each class to set goals and seek assistance when needed. Calculate your grade point average (GPA). Understand the importance of pursuing a career that is based on my interests and skills. Prepare for challenging high school courses by utilizing resources at school and in your community: seek help from teachers form study groups to prepare for tests seek resources and opportunities in your community (Boys and Girls Club, WRAP, public library, tutoring, extra-curricular activities, museums, community service projects, etc.) I pledge to: What I Pledge to Do My academic peer group members are: My current GPA = I pledge to set goals to improve my grades in the following classes: I pledge to explore different interests, hobbies and topics to determine a possible link to a career. My current interests and hobbies are: I pledge to utilize the following resources to be successful in my classes: Continue to explore colleges and career industry I am interested in career. sectors through different activities such as: researching colleges and careers on-line My top 3 college/university list: ing or writing letters to request information 1. visiting college campuses 2. reading biographies and/or conducting interviews 3. Middle School Students Pledge to Prepare for College LBUSD s middle school students have been completing a Long Beach College Promise educational plan since the spring of 2009 that outlines what they pledge to do to ensure they attend college and are successful. The pledge sets clear expectations for what students must do to prepare for college and outlines what students and parents can expect from the three institutions in Long Beach. To date, middle school students and their parents have completed and signed 57,501 pledges. To begin my pathway, I plan on applying to Small Learning Community (SLC) at high school. I pledge to explore my career interests by using my EXPLORE test results. The College Promise 1. The Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) promises that, starting in the sixth grade, all students and families will be provided information, services, and resources to prepare for college and careers. 2. Long Beach City College (LBCC) promises to offer all LBUSD students a tuition-free first semester of higher education by California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) promises that all LBUSD students who successfully complete minimum college preparatory requirements will be offered admission. 4. The State of California may provide financial assistance to eligible students through the California Community College Board of Governor s Fee Waiver Program, the CalGrant Program, and others. 5. The United States of America may provide federal financial aid, such as the Pell Grant and other resources, to eligible students who complete the FAFSA. Student Signature Parent/Guardian/Mentor Signature Chris Steinhauser Eloy Oakley F. King Alexander Superintendent, LBUSD President, LBCC President, CSULB For more information about the Long Beach College Promise, please visit www/lbschools.net and click on L in the A-Z Index. LONG BEACH COLLEGE PROMISE A Breakthrough in Student Achievement College Promise Faculty Work to Align Curricula and Expectations Faculty members from LBUSD, LBCC and CSULB have met regularly over the last several years to align expectations and curricula among the three institutions, to smooth transitions and to increase success of students in key subjects such as English and math. These efforts have expanded recently into additional areas, including science and social science, as LBUSD works to develop and implement the internationally benchmarked Common Core State Standards in the next two years. 5 - YEAR P R O G R E S S R E P O R T I 7

72 Established in 1885, Long Beach Unified School District now educates 81,000 students in 84 public schools in the cities of Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, and Avalon on Catalina Island. The school district is the third largest in California and serves one of the most diverse large cities in the United States. The student population is 53.1 percent Hispanic, 15.6 percent African American, 15.2 percent white, 11.2 percent Asian, 3 percent multi-race, 1.7 percent Pacific Islander and 0.2 percent Native American. More than two-thirds of the student population come from lower-income households and qualify for free and reduced price meals. The school district employs more than 8,000 people, making it the largest employer in Long Beach. H O N O R S FOR LBUSD The Long Beach Unified School District has earned numerous state, national and international honors. Most recently, an international study included the LBUSD among five of the world s highest performing school systems. The Global Education Study by the non-profit Battelle for Kids organization selected Finland; Hong Kong; Long Beach, California; Ontario, Canada; and Singapore from a larger list of high-performing systems. Among that larger list were 20 school systems, including Long Beach, whose student achievement results were examined in an exhaustive 2010 study by McKinsey & Company, a trusted advisor and provider of data to many of the most influential businesses and institutions in the world. These studies and others have detailed LBUSD s ability to improve academic achievement for all students, including students of color and all socioeconomic backgrounds. Founded in 1927, Long Beach City College serves the cities of Long Beach, Avalon, Signal Hill, and Lakewood and provides a wide range of education and economic development programs throughout Southern California. LBCC currently educates more than 30,000 students each year at its Liberal Arts and Pacific Coast Campuses offering over 200 certificate and degree programs in a wide range of academic and career-related fields. LBCC s student body is 44 percent Latino, 20 percent white, 15 percent African American, 15 percent Asian & Pacific Islander with 3 percent multi-race, and the remainder undetermined. More than two-thirds of its students qualify for Pell Grants and many more students qualify for the Board of Governors Fee Waiver. LBCC is a major employer in the region with more than 1,400 full- and part-time staff. H O N O R S FOR L B C C Long Beach City College is recognized throughout California and the U.S. as a leader in efforts to improve college preparation, access, and success through the Long Beach College Promise Partnership, with the Long Beach Unified School District and California State University, Long Beach, and its Promise Pathways initiative. The College has received several important recognitions recently including: Finalist for the 2013 Exemplary CEO/Board Award of Excellence from the American Association of Community Colleges, winner of the 2012 RP Group s Excellence in College Research Award for development of a predictive placement model, recognition by the White House Initiative for Excellence in Hispanic Education in 2010 and recipient of the California Community College Chancellor s Office Student Success Award in 2009.

73 California State University, Long Beach is a large, comprehensive urban university in the California State University (CSU) system. Its more than 36,000 students make it one of the largest campuses in the CSU system and in the nation. CSULB s students are served by more than 975 fulltime and 1,425 part-time faculty members. The university s eight academic colleges (College of Health and Human Services, College of Liberal Arts, College of Business Administration, College of Education, College of Engineering, College of the Arts, College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics, and College of Continuing and Professional Education) currently offer 85 baccalaureate degrees, 64 master s degrees and four doctoral degrees. Since 1950, CSULB has awarded more than 275,000 undergraduate and graduate degrees. In addition to its academic reputation, CSULB is known for its lush, garden-like campus spreading over 323 acres just three miles from the Pacific Ocean that includes 84 permanent buildings, 149 acres of landscaping and more than 100 acres of parking and parking facilities. LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser, CSULB President F. King Alexander, LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley with students: Arthur Hoskins, fifthgrade student from Barton Elementary School, Jennifer Rios, second-year LBCC student who graduated from Lakewood High School, Beverly Rodriguez, second-year CSULB student who graduated from Cabrillo High School. H O N O R S FOR C S U L B U.S. News & World Report s America s Best Colleges Guide has consistently ranked CSULB among the top five best public regional universities in the western United States and also recognized the campus earlier this year as one of the top five colleges in the nation in receiving the most freshman applications (a number that reached more than 56,000 this academic year). The same publication also named CSULB one of the most efficient universities in the country in providing a high quality education while spending relatively less than its peers to achieve that quality. Other honors included being named to the list of the 100 Best Values in Public Colleges by Kiplinger s Personal Finance magazine, being listed in the Princeton Review/USA Today s Best Value Colleges for 2013, earning a top 10 national ranking from Diverse Issues in Higher Education in conferring bachelor s degrees to minority students, and being designated as a Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs, the premier media entity for military personnel transitioning into civilian life.

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75 1/5/2015 White House Event Features LBUSD L O N G B E A C H U N I F I E D S C H O O L D I S T R I C T White House Event Features LBUSD 9 NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED The Long Beach College Promise, which helps more students prepare for and succeed in college, was featured at President Obama's College Opportunity Day of Action in Washington, D.C. Local education leaders attended and stayed for the National Christmas Tree Lighting. Leaders from the Long Beach Unified School District, Long Beach City College and Cal State Long Beach joined President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama today along with hundreds of college presidents and other higher education leaders to announce new actions to help more students prepare for and graduate from college. Just prior to President Obama s remarks, Long Beach s signature education collaborative, the Long Beach College Promise, was featured prominently during a live streaming, national panel discussion, where LBCC President Eloy Ortiz Oakley detailed the ongoing effort that has brought significant gains in college readiness, enrollment and success. The White House College Opportunity Day of Action at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. followed the first College Opportunity Day held last January, when the President and First Lady joined more than 140 college presidents and other education leaders to announce commitments to expand college opportunity. At the heart of the American ideal, the President said this week, is this sense that we re in it together, that nobody s guaranteed success, but everybody s got access to the possibilities of success, and that we are willing to work not just to make sure our own children have pathways to success but that everybody does that at some level everybody is our kid, everybody is our responsibility. We are going to give back to everybody. And we do that because it s the right thing to do, and we do it because selfishly that s how this country s going to advance and everybody s going to be better off. Big challenges like these should galvanize our country. Big challenges like these should unite us. This week s event was designed to build on the commitments announced at the January event, with more than 300 college presidents and other leaders launching initiatives in new areas. Among those college presidents was CSULB President Jane Close Conoley, who committed to raising freshman graduation rates by 5 percent per year by 2020 and then another 5 percent by With about 4,000 freshmen admitted each year, these increases would translate to 2,000 additional graduates by The university also is committing to building upon the Long Beach College Promise collaboration that began in 2008 with LBUSD and LBCC. Cal State Long Beach is proud to share its part in the Long Beach College Promise s success with President Obama, Vice President Biden, First Lady Michelle Obama and all the participants in this Day of Action, Conoley said. Since the Promise first launched in 2008, the university has seen a 43 percent increase in freshmen enrolling from the Long Beach Unified School District. And, College Promise freshmen from Long Beach Unified and transfers from Long Beach City College remain enrolled at a higher rate than nonlocal California students. Those are things to shout about! At the invitation of President Obama and the First Lady, Conoley joined LBCC President Oakley and LBUSD Superintendent Christopher J. Steinhauser at the event. The all day program s schedule included remarks from President Obama, the First Lady and 1/2